NIH Earns AAHRPP Accreditation

The Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs today announced that it has accredited four more organizations—including the National Institutes of Health, the first hospital in the Middle East, a second in Taiwan, and a world renowned children’s research hospital.

The accreditations provide some of the strongest evidence to date that AAHRPP’s accreditation standards have gained acceptance among the world’s most respected research institutions. In virtually every sector of the research enterprise and every region of the globe, organizations are relying on AAHRPP standards to help protect research participants.

The newly accredited organizations are:

• King Fahad Specialist Hospital-Dammam, Dammam, Saudi Arabia
• National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.
• St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tenn.
• Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan

“NIH is the world’s premier research organization. NIH has been at the forefront of research innovation and ethics for decades, and organizations the world round follow NIH’s lead,” said Elyse I. Summers, AAHRPP president and CEO. “The decision to seek AAHRPP accreditation delivers a powerful message to research institutions about NIH’s commitment to research protections and the value of AAHRPP’s standards.”

The AAHRPP accreditation covers the NIH intramural research program, including NIH investigators at more than 20 institutes and centers on all NIH campuses.

“NIH is pleased to know that we have met the rigorous standards set by AARHPP that demonstrate the high quality of our human research protection program,” said Dr. Michael Gottesman, NIH deputy director for intramural research. “NIH is delighted that AAHRPP decided to award the NIH intramural research program full accreditation. This outcome is a result of hard work by many, including NIH physicians, IRB (institutional review board) chairs, protocol coordinators, OHSRP (Office of Human Subject Recruitment and Protection) staff and others, for which NIH is deeply grateful.”

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is a household-name research organization whose decision to seek AAHRPP accreditation underscores the hospital’s commitment to protecting the thousands of children who participate in research at St. Jude.

With the accreditation of King Fahad Specialist Hospital-Dammam, AAHRPP makes inroads in yet another region of the world and, once again, demonstrates that AAHRPP standards have universal applications. The hospital was accredited in accordance with AAHRPP standards, U.S. regulations, International Conference on Harmonisation-Guidelines for Good Clinical Practice (E6) and Saudi Arabian law.

The accreditation of Taipei Medical University Hospital—the second university-affiliated hospital in Taiwan to earn the AAHRPP gold seal—marks another international milestone for AAHRPP, which now has accredited 18 organizations outside the U.S.

“These latest accreditations in Saudi Arabia and Taiwan are a reminder that we truly can have one standard for research protections worldwide,” Summers said. “That standard has been set by AAHRPP.”

AAHRPP accreditation is available to all organizations worldwide that conduct or review biomedical, behavioral or social sciences research involving human participants. Accreditation decisions are made quarterly.

To date, AAHRPP has accredited organizations in 46 states, Canada, China, India, Mexico, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Taiwan. All major U.S. independent institutional review boards have earned AAHRPP accreditation. In addition, more than 60 percent of U.S. research-intensive universities and over 65 percent of U.S. medical schools are either AAHRPP accredited or have begun the accreditation process. NIH, the world’s largest public funder of research, has earned accreditation, as has Pfizer, Inc., the largest industry sponsor of clinical research.