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OLFU IERC receives Level II Accreditation
OLFU IERC receives Level II Accreditation

By: Vicente Santos

10/10/2014

By: Vicente Santos

10/10/2014

The Our Lady of Fatima University Institutional Ethics Review Committee (OLFU-IERC) was granted a Level II Accreditation of the Philippine Health Research Ethics Board (PHREB). The Chair of PHREB Subcommittee on Standards and Accreditation Dr. Cecilia V. Tomas gave the pronouncement on October 7, 2014. The OLFU-IERC is the first Level II accredited Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the Philippine Health Research Ethics Board.

A Level II Accreditation is given to an IRB when it met the following criteria: has sufficient competency and efficiency in ethical review; adheres to a set of appropriate standard operating procedures; and has adequate administrative support. Level II Accreditation allows an IERC review most health researches including highly sensitive social behavioral researches and clinical trial protocols not intended for FDA registration of new drugs. The announcement was the culmination of an accreditation process that began in the submission of documents in June 2014.

The thrust of the committee to obtain an accreditation from PHREB was an initial effort of the Research Development and Innovation Center spearheaded by its Director Michael Joseph S. Diño and the IERC Chair Ms. Jenica Ana Rivero. In November of 2013, the RDIC initiated an effort to bring DOST’s Philippine Health Research Ethics Board to the university to train capable personnel in evaluating ethical merits of research protocols and constructing standard operating procedures. This is a response of the university to the national policy (CHED Memo 34, series of (2007) where all institutions that conduct health research are urged to establish review committees that shall be in charge of ethical evaluation and monitoring of research involving human participants.

The accreditation demonstrates that OLFU-RDIC and OLFU-IERC have built extensive safeguards into every level of the research operation and that they adhere to high standards for research. It is a public pronouncement of OLFU’s commitment to protect research participants. The commitment resonates not only with participants but also with researchers and the general public. The accreditation is a mark of a quality human research programs where protecting participants is a shared responsibility and a top priority.