[What a surgeon needs to know of the work of a medical ethics committee/institutional review board].

Ethical committees or institutional review boards are interdisciplinary committees to assess the ethical, social, legal and medical aspects of research involving human subjects. The ethics commission is to protect both the patient as well as the investigators and other personnel involved in the implementation of scientific projects. According to the professional code (Berufsordnung) every physician is obliged to consult an ethics committee to get a an approval before carrying out a research project. Concerning the Declaration of Helsinki, the advice of physicians is an international standard before carrying out a research project. In addition to the advisory function the ethics committee has an authorisation function within the pharmaceutical and medical device law. In the present publication the advisory and authorisation functions of an German ethics committee are briefly explained. Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.