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From the President and CEO

 

Happy 25th Anniversary, AAHRPP!

 

In just a few weeks, we’ll gather in Detroit for what has become one of our community’s most anticipated annual events: the AAHRPP conference. As you can tell from our conference theme, “Great Lakes, Great Minds Meet in Michigan,” this year we’re returning to my beloved Detroit, a city that hosted AAHRPP nine years ago. We’re also celebrating a magnificent milestone: AAHRPP’s 25th anniversary.

Many of you have been with us for the entire ride. Many others are new, bright lights in our field. Together we continue to build and strengthen a community that’s collaborative, committed, and resilient.

More than 300 “great minds” have already registered for the conference, and there’s still time for more of you to join us. That’s an amazing show of support at a time when many might have expected us to be disheartened by the upheaval our community is facing—the threats to accepted science, federal funding and staffing, research oversight and guidance and, ultimately, the health of our nation and world.

But those who thought we’d be undone by these challenges clearly don’t know our history or our community. Determination is in our DNA.

Led by the twin titans of our founding —the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and Public Responsibility in Medicine & Research (PRIM&R) along with five other important research-focused organizations (AAU, NASULGC/APLU, FASEB, NHC, and COSSA)—in 2001 AAHRPP was created to rise to the challenges faced at another critical moment for the research enterprise, specifically in response to calls to reform the oversight of research involving human participants. Since then, in tandem with the organizations seeking and achieving AAHRPP accreditation, our community has been instrumental in transforming the world’s approach to the review, management, oversight, and conduct of human subjects research.

For 25 years, AAHRPP-accredited organizations around the globe have been conducting research in a manner that recognizes their ethical and moral obligation to treat research participants with the utmost care, respect, and attention to their safety. And every year, more organizations commit to AAHRPP’s standards.

Regardless of what happens in Washington or anywhere else, that’s not going to change. In fact, during uncertain times, being part of the AAHRPP community is more important than ever. It gives you a place to turn with questions, for information, and for support. It also gives you an opportunity to shape the future of research protections.

Those of you who attend our conference will be invited to do just that, in a special plenary, “A Call to Action: Reimagining the Future of Human Research Protections.” You’ll also have your choice of 20 breakout sessions on some of today’s most fascinating and most pressing research-related issues. You’ll get to connect with friends, meet new colleagues and, during our final plenary, “AAHRPP at 25,” acknowledge our accomplishments and look ahead, with excitement, to the future. (The full agenda, including registration information, is available here.)

But what’s best about our conference—and about AAHRPP—is our community of individuals. If you haven’t attended an AAHRPP conference before, I urge you to come this year and, if possible, to attend in person. You will be amazed at how invigorating it is to spend time with colleagues who share your dedication, enthusiasm, and commitment to such a critical common purpose.

Looking forward to seeing you and celebrating together.

 

Elyse I. Summers, JD

AAHRPP President and CEO