 Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs, Inc.

 announced the publication of a performance study on human research protection programs (HRPPs).  The study is available in AAHRPP Advance and on the organization's Web site.

 From data supplied by client organizations in 2009, AAHRPP has compiled an information database to help research organizations, researchers, sponsors, and government agencies identify and support high performance in HRPPs.  One hundred ninety-six organizations, of which 8.7 percent were independent IRBs, 17.9 percent were hospitals, 27 percent were universities, 41.8 percent were VA medical centers, and 4.6 percent were other research organizations, submitted data.  Following the demand for evidence-based practice in other areas, AAHRPP is leading an initiative to describe the current practices for human research protection for the research enterprise. The ultimate goal is to define and measure quality-in terms of both efficiency and the protections that organizations, IRBs, and researchers provide to research participants.  

"The availability of objective data should drive bench-marking efforts to improve quality both within an organization and across the research enterprise," said Dr. Marjorie Speers, Ph.D., President and CEO.  As part of the benchmarking process, individual organizations, both accredited and non-accredited, can compare their HRPPs to the aggregate of other accredited programs. Over time, they will be able to compare their current performance with their performance in the past. 