Decision Artifacts
A decision should survive scrutiny.
An OpenIRB decision artifact records what was reviewed, which evidence was considered, what decision was made, under what conditions, by whom, and what happens next.
Anatomy of a decision artifact
A decision artifact on the left, optionally bound to a cryptographic trust receipt on the right.
decision-artifact.json
{
"review_id": "oirb_2026_0001",
"object_of_review": "clinical_ai_triage_workflow",
"risk_class": "O-3",
"decision": "approved_with_conditions",
"conditions": [
"human_clinician_must_confirm_recommendations",
"monthly_bias_monitoring_required",
"incident_review_within_72_hours"
],
"evidence_packet_hash": "blake3:...",
"consent_posture_hash": "blake3:...",
"authority_record_hash": "blake3:...",
"policy_version": "IRBI-1200-draft-0.1",
"reviewer_roles": ["chair", "clinical", "ai", "ethics", "privacy"],
"continuing_review_due": "2026-12-14",
"timestamp": "2026-06-14T00:00:00Z"
}Decision artifacts create institutional memory.
Organizations forget why they approved systems. Teams change. Models update. Data drifts. Vendors pivot. Regulations evolve. A decision artifact preserves the reasoning and obligations that should travel with the system — review ID, object, sponsor, owner, risk class, review path, evidence version, decision type, rationale, conditions, required modifications, monitoring obligations, incident triggers, continuing review date, closure criteria, conflicts of interest, reviewer roles, and timestamp.