{"id":169,"date":"2024-09-19T17:04:16","date_gmt":"2024-09-19T17:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/irb\/?page_id=169"},"modified":"2026-04-13T04:03:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T04:03:19","slug":"consentwaiveralteration","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/irb\/consentwaiveralteration\/","title":{"rendered":"How do I get a Consent Waiver or Alter the Consent Form?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>MTSU IRB mandates informed consent be administered for all of the studies reviewed under the EXEMPT mechanism.&nbsp; The fundamental philosophy behind this mandate is &#8220;if you can&#8217;t tell people what you will be doing, then the study cannot be exempt!&#8221; However, minor alterations to the exempt informed consent script will be entertained on a case-by-case manner.&nbsp; Request for such alterations must be made in the exempt application form in appropriate&nbsp;fields.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Waiver and major alterations to the IRB-approved consent scripts can be only made in the expedited or full review mechanisms provided the following conditions are met.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Approval for\u00a0Consent Waiver or\u00a0Permission to Alter the Consent Process<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In certain cases, the Federal Regulations allow for approval of procedures which alters the elements of informed consent or waives the requirement to obtain any informed consent. A waiver must be completed and submitted with the application form. The following criteria must apply:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list is-style-compact-list\">\n<li>The research involves no more than minimal risk to subjects;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The waiver or alteration will not adversely affect the rights and welfare of the subjects;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The research could not practicably be carried out without the waiver or alteration;and<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Whenever appropriate, the subject will be provided with additional pertinent information after participation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The request for waiver\/alteration must be made in the expedited\/full review application&nbsp;form in the informed consent section.&nbsp; Additional information on the proposed waiver\/alteration can be made in appropriate&nbsp;appendix section(s) cited in the form.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Waiver of Obtaining Signed Consent Forms<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Federal regulations allow for approval of a waiver of obtaining&nbsp;<em>signed<\/em>&nbsp;consent forms if:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list is-style-compact-list\">\n<li>The only record linking the subject and the research would be the consent document and the principal risk would be potential harm resulting from a breach of confidentiality, or<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The research presents no more than minimal risk of harm to the subjects and involves no procedures for which written consent is normally required outside of the research context.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>A waiver request must be in the application form and a justification for seeking the waiver must be provided in the appropriate&nbsp;appendix section.&nbsp; The IRB decision on waiver\/alteration is final and may not be appealed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Other Questions about Informed Consent?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>See The US Department of Health Office for Human Research Protections FAQ section on Informed Consent (<a href=\"http:\/\/answers.hhs.gov\/ohrp\/categories\/1566\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">http:\/\/answers.hhs.gov\/ohrp\/categories\/1566<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MTSU IRB mandates informed consent be administered for all of the studies reviewed under the EXEMPT mechanism.&nbsp; The fundamental philosophy behind this mandate is &#8220;if you can&#8217;t tell people what you will be doing, then the study cannot be exempt!&#8221; However, minor alterations to the exempt informed consent script will be entertained on a case-by-case [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-bannernosidebar.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-169","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/irb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/irb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/irb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/irb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/irb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/irb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1971,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/irb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/169\/revisions\/1971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/irb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}