Last April 16-19, 2018, the Philippine Health Research Ethics Board (PHREB) together with the Forum for Ethical Review Committees in Asia and the Western Pacific (FERCAP) conducted a joint accreditation visit at Bicol Regional Training and Teaching Hospital (BRTTH).

After having been Level 2 Accredited in 2017, the BRTTH endeavors to achieve Level 3 Accreditation this 2018 – the highest award given among Research Ethics Committees (RECs) in the country. Concurrently BRTTH aims to be SIDCER* Recognized by FERCAP – a project of the World Health Organization (WHO) Special Training and Research Programme in Tropical Diseases for Asia and the Western Pacific.

The purpose of the visit was to assist the BRTTH Institutional Review Board (IRB) in reviewing its practices and appraise its performance against the PHREB standards for accreditation and SIDCER standards for recognition Joint PHREB-SIDCER Team was composed by: DR. CRISTINA E. TORRES – Survey Coordinator, DR. MILAGROS M. VIACRUCIS – Lead Surveyor, DR. SONIA E. BONGALA – Surveyor, Prof. TERESITA DE GUZMAN - Surveyor, Part of the accreditation-survey was also to provide training for aspiring Research Ethics Committees to become PHREB accredited. Trainees came from three participating agencies: Cardinal Santos Medical Center, Department of Health Regional Office V, Bicol Medical Center.

After completion of recommendations, the awarding for the PHREB Level III Accreditation will be at Baguio City in August 2018 during the PNHRS Week Celebration, while for the FERCAP-SIDCER Recognition, it will be held at Taiwan by November 2018.


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Written by BRTTH-IRB