A group of specialists who monitor experiments involving human beings or who regulate the way in which members of the medical profession conduct themselves.
A group of senior doctors and other experts set up (especially in a hospital) to monitor investigations, concerned with teaching or research, that involve the use of human subjects. It is responsible for insuring that patients are adequately informed of the procedures involved in a research project (including the use of dummy or placebo treatments as controls), that the tests and/or therapies are safe, and that no one is pressurized into participating.