Seven More Research Organizations Earn AAHRPP Accreditation, Reflecting Steady Inroads Within and Outside the U.S., Especially in Asia

June 22, 2015: WASHINGTON, D.C.―The Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs today announced that it has accredited seven more organizations, one of the largest groups in recent memory.

Three of the newly accredited organizations are in Asia, a region that is leading the international community in embracing AAHRPP accreditation. In fact, more than 10 percent of AAHRPP-accredited organizations are located there.

The newly accredited organizations are:

• Loyola University Chicago, Health Sciences Division, Maywood, Illinois

• Peking University, Beijing, China

• Taipei Medical University - Shuang Ho Hospital, New Taipei City, Taiwan

• Texas A & M University, College Station, Texas

• University of California, Davis, Davis, California

• University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida

• Wan Fang Municipal Hospital, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan

According to AAHRPP President and CEO Elyse I. Summers, the group is significant for its size and composition, both of which highlight “the growing, global recognition of the value of AAHRPP accreditation and the need for one standard worldwide to protect research participants.”

The newly accredited organizations include four highly respected U.S. academic institutions, a top-ranked university in China, and two of Taiwan’s leading hospitals.

“With these accreditations, we take another important step in extending AAHRPP’s high standards and advancing high-quality, ethical research around the globe,” Summers said. “We applaud the newly accredited-and all AAHRPP-accredited-organizations for their commitment to excellence and, above all, to safeguarding research participants.”

To earn AAHRPP accreditation, organizations must demonstrate that they have built extensive safeguards into every level of their research operation and that they adhere to high standards for research. In today’s global, collaborative research enterprise, organizations increasingly rely on AAHRPP accreditation status to help identify trusted research partners.

To date, AAHRPP has accredited more than 210 organizations in 46 states, Canada, China, India, Mexico, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand. 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. The National Institutes of Health, the world’s largest public funder of research, has earned accreditation, as has Pfizer, Inc., the largest industry sponsor of clinical research.

AAHRPP provides accreditation for organizations that conduct or review human research and can demonstrate that their protections exceed the safeguards required by the U.S. government. To learn more, visit www.aahrpp.org.

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