Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited (AHEL) has been awarded full accreditation and honoured with the global Gold Seal by the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs (AAHRPP) at the September’2016 meeting of its Council on Accreditation.

AAHRPP accreditation marks AHEL as one of those elite institutions and companies which maintain the highest international standards in conducting research requiring human participants.

AAHRPP is an independent, non-profit organisation founded in 2001 to ensure research compliance and promote uniform standards for the protection of human subjects. AAHRPP promotes high-quality, ethically sound research through an accreditation process that helps organizations worldwide strengthen their human research protection programs (HRPPs). An independent, non-profit accrediting body, AAHRPP uses a voluntary, peer-driven, educational model to ensure that HRPPs meet rigorous standards for quality and protection. AAHRPP-accredited organizations have more efficient operations, provide more comprehensive protections, and produce high-quality data.

Research & Innovations at Apollo Hospitals is led by its divisions – Apollo Research & Innovations (ARI) and Apollo Hospitals Education and Research Foundation (AHERF). Whilst ARI focuses on scouting, evaluating, deploying innovations and undertaking clinical research, AHERF focuses on undertaking basic, epidemiological and translational research at Apollo Hospitals. Apollo Hospitals currently have research facilities across India with over 200 GCP trained active principle investigators and over 65 research coordinators.

To earn AAHRPP accreditation, AHEL provided tangible evidence through policies, procedures, and practices of their commitment to scientifically and ethically sound research and to continuous improvement.  

This is the first time in the world that 13 hospitals systems in 5 different locations, which are part of the same institution, have been awarded full accreditation simultaneously. This follows an intensive site visit in June 2016 during which the different stakeholders were interviewed and compliance was ascertained. AAHRPP has accredited less than 2 per cent of hospitals worldwide. To date, only 35 institutions have earned AAHRPP accreditation outside the United States, making it a coveted distinction.

The AAHRPP accreditation also enhances the accredited organisation’s standing with US federal agencies. The central IRB of the National Cancer Institute earned AAHRPP accreditation in December 2012. All major US independent institutional review boards (IRBs) are AAHRPP accredited. More than 60 per cent of US research-intensive universities and 65 per cent of US medical schools are either AAHRPP accredited or have begun the accreditation process.

Long regarded as the gold standard, AAHRPP accreditation is becoming the norm for quality research programmes.

Dr. K Hari Prasad, president Hospitals Division, Apollo Hospital Group said, “The AAHRPP accreditation allows us to meet the expectations of international peers, thus instilling trust among research partners.”

Dr. N.K Ganguly, president, Apollo Hospital Education and Research Foundation (AHERF) & former director general, ICMR added “The gold seal accreditation allows us to undertake more research projects whilst ensuring that one has built extensive safeguards in every level of research operations”.

Seemant Jauhari, CEO, Apollo Research & Innovations (ARI) said “We wanted to proactively set a benchmark for research standards. The standardisation of processes and systems across hospital centers allows us to focus on translating ideas from bench to bedside.”

The hospitals accredited are Apollo Hospitals International Ltd, Ahmadabad; Apollo Hospitals, Chennai (Apollo Main Hospital, Apollo Specialty Hospital, Apollo First Med Hospital, Apollo Tondiarpet Hospital, Apollo speciality Hospitals Vanagaram, and Apollo Children’s Hospital); Apollo Hospitals Hyderabad (Apollo Health City Jubilee Hills, Apollo DRDO Hospitals, Apollo Hospitals Hyderguda and Apollo Hospitals Secunderabad); Apollo Specialty Hospitals Madurai and Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals New Delhi.

With this accreditation, Apollo Hospitals now carries two Gold seals – JCI and AAHRPP amongst other accreditations. This accreditation provides Apollo Hospitals an opportunity to increase international collaborations with leading research oriented institutions and allows it to be better prepared for global clinical studies.