The quest for AAHRPP accreditation has been a long process, we have been preparing  for this application for almost two years. I would like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation to all the faculty and staff who assisted us in this process, conducting the extensive self-assessment, developing and refining our institutional policies and procedures, preparing the application and associated documentation and then in responding to the preliminary inquiries and commentaries that are an integral part of the accreditation process.

I would like to highlight the contributions of the staff of CPHS, in particular Ms. Cynthia Edmonds and Dr. Robert Nobles, and the invaluable efforts of Dr. Sujatha Sridhar, the Director of our Clinical Trials Resource Center who led the AAHRPP application process. These individuals invested a huge amount of time and effort in insuring that we put together an application that reflected the quality of our program  at UTHSC-H.  However the most important aspect of this accreditation is not the application per se but the fact that we have an accreditable program, not just an accreditable program but an outstanding program for the protection of human research subjects. The excellence of our program is a tribute to the dedication of the CPHS, the faculty, staff and community volunteers who serve as its members as well as to its Executive Chair, Dr. Anne Dougherty.   

Ultimately, however, the excellence of our human subjects protection program rests not on the quality of our IRB or its staff, but on the dedication of our faculty and research staff, those who actually carry out the research, to the shared responsibility for insuring that all who volunteer to participate in our institution’s research programs will be treated with the respect, concern and consideration for their well-being  that are the foundation of ethical  research. To all who made this happen, this AAHRPP accreditation is a tribute to your efforts.

In closing let me say I am delighted with this outcome. We and our colleagues at UT Health Science Center – San Antonio, who were also accredited in this round, are the first Health-Related Institutions of the UT System to receive AAHRPP accreditation (we join our colleagues at UT Austin who received accreditation a few years ago).  With this important milestone behind us, all of us charged with responsibility for providing support to our researchers and research programs, look forward to the continued growth in the amount and quality of the services that are available to our outstanding institutional research programs.

Best wishes

Peter J.A. Davies, M.D., Ph.D.
Executive Vice President for Research