What is the IRBs Statement Regarding Sincle Case Reports?
In keeping with the ethical obligation to respect patients’ privacy, the IRB encourages health care providers to inform their patients, and where appropriate, the patients’ families, that a case report is being prepared and how it may be used (lectures, publications, teaching rounds). This is particularly true when the case is rare enough that a patient, or someone close to the patients, could identify the patient given the condition being reported and the clinician’s institutional affiliation. In the event that a journal requests documentation of IRB approval for a single case report, the IRB has prepared a letter explaining its policy which can be sent to the editor.
