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NEW NATIONAL ACCREDITING ENTITY LAUNCHED

Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs

Press Release

Contact: Todd Bentsen
202-828-0989

Washington, D.C., May 23, 2001-At a Capitol Hill press briefing today, founders of the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs (AAHRPP) announced the formation of the new nonprofit organization and outlined its purpose and goals. AAHRPP is developing a voluntary, peer-driven, educationally focused accreditation program for human research protection, using a site visit model that employs a rigorous set of performance standards and outcome measures.

Representatives from the founding member organizations voiced their strong support for AAHRPP at the briefing. They are the Association of American Medical Colleges, Association of American Universities, Consortium of Social Science Associations, Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, National Health Council, and Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research. AAHRPP will be located in Rockville, Md.

"We intend that AAHRPP become the gold standard for the research enterprise," said David Korn, M.D., AAMC's senior VP for Biomedical and Health Sciences Research. "Accreditation by AAHRPP will help ensure consistency and uniformity of human research participant protections among all institutions that conduct biomedical, behavioral, and social sciences research. And it will help sustain public confidence and trust that, in these accredited organizations, the safety of human research participants remains the first and foremost concern."

Institutions seeking AAHRPP accreditation must conduct a rigorous self-assessment of their research policies and practices, followed by a site visit from AAHRPP accreditors, who are experts in human research protections. The accreditation process determines whether an institution meets the standards, and encourages the institution to continuously improve its human research protection programs. A 21-member board of directors-which will include representatives from organizations concerned with human participants research, patient representatives, and community stakeholders-will oversee the accreditation process.

"We became a founding member to insure that the myriad patients and research volunteers represented by our member organizations would have a clear and forceful voice in this new and important entity," said National Health Council president Myrl Weinberg. "The National Health Council strongly supports AAHRPP's approach to accreditation."

Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research was an early, driving force in developing this new accrediting body. "We felt that such a program must include the roles of the institution and investigators along with that of the institutional review board, or IRB. By evaluating the system as a single functional unit we will go beyond the current regulations that have historically placed the major burden on the IRB," said Sanford Chodosh, M.D., president of Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research. "We intended to develop a system that could be applicable to human participants in research regardless of where the research was undertaken, who sponsored the research, or the type of research."

AAHRPP expects to begin pilot-testing its standards by late summer and to be fully operational by January 2002.

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Statements of support from founding member organizations are available; contact Todd Bentsen or call 202-828-0989.

The Association of American Medical Colleges represents the 125 accredited U.S. medical schools; the 16 accredited Canadian medical schools; some 400 major teaching hospitals, including 74 Veterans Administration medical centers; 91 academic and professional societies representing over 100,000 faculty members; and the nation's 67,000 medical students and 102,000 residents.

The Association of American Universities (AAU) was founded in 1900 by a group of 14 universities offering the Ph.D. degree. The AAU currently consists of 61 American universities and two Canadian universities; approximately half are public institutions and half are private. The AAU serves its members by assisting them in developing national policy positions on issues that relate to academic research and graduate and professional education, and by providing them with a forum for discussing a broad range of other institutional issues.

The Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA) is an advocacy organization whose mission is to promote attention to and federal funding for the social and behavioral sciences. COSSA is supported by more than 100 professional associations, scientific societies, universities, and research institutes. COSSA serves as a bridge between the academic research community and the Washington policymaking community.

Founded in 1912, The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) is comprised of 21 societies with more than 60,000 members, making it the largest coalition of biomedical research associations in the United States. FASEB's mission is to enhance the ability of biomedical and life scientists to improve, through their research, the health, well-being, and productivity of all people. FASEB serves the interests of these scientists, particularly in those areas related to public policy.

Founded in 1887, the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC) is the nation's oldest higher education association. A voluntary association of public universities, land-grant institutions and many of the nation's public university systems, NASULGC campuses are located in all 50 states, the U.S. territories and the District of Columbia. Dedicated to supporting excellence in teaching, research, and public service, NASULGC has been in the forefront of educational leadership nationally for over a century.

The National Health Council is a nonprofit, umbrella organization whose members are 112 national health-related organizations, with a core constituency of almost 50 leading patient organizations representing approximately 100 million people with chronic diseases and/or disabilities. The Council's three goals are to promote quality health care for all people; to promote the importance of medical research; and to promote the role of voluntary health agencies, or patient-based organizations.

Since its founding in 1974, Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research (PRIM&R) has been committed to the advancement of strong research programs and to the consistent application of ethical precepts in both medicine and research. Through national conferences and published reports thereon, it has addressed a broad range of issues in biomedical and behavioral research, clinical practice, ethics, and the law.