"Gold Seal" of Approval

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) has received full accreditation by The Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs, Inc. (AAHRPP), an independent and worldwide oversight group. Two other U.S. organizations and a hospital in China also are among the latest to earn AAHRPP accreditation.

AAHRPP accreditation provides evidence that TTUHSC meets rigorous standards through policies, procedures and practices — of the institutional 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 of the quality of the human subjects program at TTUHSC.

P. Michael Conn, Ph.D., senior vice president for research and associate provost, said AAHRPP accredits high-quality human research protection programs in order to promote excellent, ethically sound research.

“This is a major step forward for us,” Conn said, “This accreditation demonstrates our commitment to excellence in clinical studies and our growth in research.”

AAHRPP accreditation followed a year of internal evaluation and process improvements that were evaluated by an external site visit team sent by the accreditation organization. More than 40 administrators, Institutional Review Board members, researchers and research staff from the Lubbock and Amarillo TTUHSC campuses were interviewed during the site visit to ensure that written policies were known and best practices were being followed.

AAHRPP-accredited organizations include universities, academic medical centers, community and specialty hospitals, independent institutional review boards, contract research organizations, dedicated research sites, research sponsors and public health departments.