Frederic Koning: The IRB and the Community It Serves

In this episode of More than Meets the IRB: A Joint Initiative of Washington University in St. Louis and PRIM&R, we speak with Fred Koning, M.Div, Th.M, M.S., about the role of the non-scientist community member on the IRB. The non-scientist member (often discussed as the “community member”) role is “notoriously” difficult to define, and in this episode we discuss with Koning—a longtime non-scientist IRB member and former parish minister—how he perceives the role. After exploring what IRBs owes its community, we discuss how Koning’s own personal background with family members in clinical trials informs his work with the IRB. The episode closes with an acknowledgment that “scientific or medical naiveté” on the part of the non-scientist IRB member can open up important lines of ethical inquiry that experts wouldn’t necessarily think to examine.