Latest AAHRPP Accreditations Include First NIH Entity and First Organization in Taiwan

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

has awarded accreditation to the National Cancer Institute Central Institutional Review Board—the first National Institutes of Health entity to earn this distinction.

NCI CIRB is one of five entities whose accreditation was approved at the December meeting of AAHRPP’s Council on Accreditation. Also accredited were two international organizations, including the first in Taiwan. The five newly accredited organizations are:

• Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center,Torrance, Calif.
• Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center-New Orleans, New Orleans, LA.
• NCI CIRB, Rockville, Md.
• National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
• Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Korea

Accreditation of the NCI CIRB has implications for researchers and cancer patients nationwide because nearly all large multi-institutional treatment trials led by NCI’s Cooperative Group Program will now be conducted in accordance with AAHRPP’s high standards for protecting research participants.

“AAHRPP accreditation is an important affirmation of the high quality of the ethics reviews and the administrative processes conducted by NCI’s CIRB,” said Jeffrey Abrams, M.D., associate director of NCI's Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program, “and provides the impetus for us to expand the CIRB effort to cover phase 1-2 multicenter, NCI-sponsored trials in the future.”
NCI is one of 27 institutes and centers that form the NIH. The NCI CIRB will serve as the IRB for nearly all large multi-institutional treatment trials led by NCI’s Cooperative Group Program.

“NCI has long led the nation’s efforts to understand, treat and prevent cancer,” said Marjorie A. Speers, Ph.D., AAHRPP president and CEO. “By earning AAHRPP accreditation, NCI once again is demonstrating its leadership and commitment to high-quality research and to all those who are touched by cancer. Our hope is that other research organizations, including other research funders, will follow NCI’s example.”

The latest round of accreditations comes as AAHRPP marks the end of its first decade of accrediting research programs and organizations that meet high standards for research quality, ethics and protection of research participants. The diversity of the newly accredited organizations—a federal agency IRB, U.S. academic medical centers and international hospitals―underscores the inroads AAHRPP has made across the research enterprise, in the U.S. and worldwide.

“From the beginning, AAHRPP’s goal has been to protect as many participants as possible, while ensuring that the world reaps the benefits of research,” Speers said. “These accreditations, of key players in Asia and the U.S., represent another significant step forward in achieving that goal.”

AAHRPP accreditation is available to U.S. and international organizations that conduct biomedical, behavioral or social sciences research involving human participants. To date, AAHRPP has accredited organizations in 46 states, Canada, China, India, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan.