Institutional Review Board Services (IRB Services) Awarded Full Accreditation for Protecting Research Participants
Aurora, ON, December 19, 2011— Institutional Review Board Services (IRB Services) is pleased to announce that it has been awarded full accreditation by the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs (AAHRPP). IRB Services is the first fully independent, unaffiliated Canadian-based research ethics committee to earn Accreditation from AAHRPP.
AAHRPP accreditation – which translates into significant benefits for research participants and society as a whole – is available to U.S. and international organizations that conduct biomedical, behavioral or social sciences research involving human participants.
Founded in 1993, IRB Services is an independent organization dedicated to protecting the rights and safety of human subjects. IRB Services operates research ethics committees in Toronto, Ontario; Montreal, Quebec; and Boca Raton, Florida, which review a wide range of both industry and publicly funded human subject research across multiple disciplines, including Health Canada, Food and Drug Administration, and US Department of Health and Human Services regulated research.
“Since IRB Services operates in an international environment with geographically-dispersed ethics committees dealing with a complex matrix of regulatory and ethical requirements, AAHRPP’s accreditation process has ensured the company meets or exceeds all those obligations and more,” said Jack Corman, President and CEO of IRB Services.
An independent, non-profit accrediting body, AAHRPP uses a voluntary, peer-driven, educational model to ensure that Human Research Protection Programs (HRPP) meet rigorous standards for quality and protection. To earn accreditation, organizations must provide tangible evidence-through policies, procedures, and practices -of their commitment to scientifically and ethically sound research and to continuous improvement. As the "gold seal," AAHRPP accreditation offers assurances—to research participants, researchers, sponsors, government regulators, and the general public—that an HRPP is focused first and foremost on excellence.