AAHRPP Accredits Nine Research Organizations

List includes organizations in U.S., Belgium, China and Taiwan

Washington, D.C. - The Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs today announced that it has accredited nine more research organizations in the U.S., Belgium, China and Taiwan.

The newly accredited organizations include hospitals, academic institutions and integrated health care systems. They are:

• Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China

• Chi Mei Medical Center, Tainan Taiwan

• Houston Methodist, Houston, Texas

• St. Joseph Health, Irvine, California

• State University of New York College of Optometry, New York, New York

• Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan

• Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel, in Brussels, Belgium

• The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico

• Xiyuan Hospital of China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China

“These accreditations are the latest indication that AAHRPP standards for research protections have become the international benchmark for high-quality, ethically sound human research-and that makes a difference for all of us,” AAHRPP President and CEO Elyse I. Summers said.

“Put another way, organizations that commit to AAHRPP accreditation are also committing to conduct top-tier ethical research, so we, in turn, can have confidence in the results and the advances they make possible.”

To date, 238 organizations have earned AAHRPP accreditation. Of these, 41 are located outside the United States. “More and more, organizations are recognizing that clinical research is a global enterprise, and protecting participants is a global responsibility,” Summers said.

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.

AAHRPP has accredited organizations in 47 states, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Mexico, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, 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.

About AAHRPP
A nonprofit organization, 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.