Committed to fulfill its project in capacitating Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to overcome difficulties in establishing their RECs and to achieve accreditation, the Commission on Higher Education – Regional Office 1 (CHED-RO1) and CHED Office of Planning, Research and Knowledge Management (OPRKM) sponsored an online Basic Research Ethics Training (BRET) on November 15-16, 2021.
A total of 30 participants who are researchers, research advisers, and ethics committee members, attended the said training from ten (10) HEIs offering graduate and health programs. The speakers were Dr. Marita V. Tolentino-Reyes and Dr. Carl Abelardo T. Antonio from the Philippine Health Research Ethics Board (PHREB) – Committee on Information, Dissemination, Training and Advocacy (CIDTA).
The project was initiated by Dr. Mayrose L. Quezon as the Chairperson of the Regional Ethics Monitoring Board-1 (REMB-1) who oversees the operations of RECs in Region 1
Participating agencies are expected to establish and submit their application for REC accreditation
The Commission on Higher Education – Regional Office 1 (CHED-RO1) and CHED Office of Planning, Research and Knowledge Management (OPRKM) conducted an Online Orientation-Seminar on the Establishment and Accreditation of Research Ethics Committee (REC) and Institutional Animal Care and Use (IACUC) on May 25, 2021, with the aim of capacitating HEIs and researchers to overcome difficulties in establishing and subjecting their RECs and IACUCs for accreditation.
On February 19, 2020, the DOH Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation Center – Dagupan Research Ethics Committee (DOH DTRC Dagupan REC) received the good news of being granted Level 2 Accreditation by the Philippine Health Research Ethics Board thru the Regional Ethics Monitoring Board – 1, valid for 1 year.
Despite being one of the youngest member institutions of the Region 1 Health Research and Development Consortium, who’d became a member on May 2018, the committee which is headed by the Chair, Mr. Eric Vincent R. Maminta thru the help of the Dr. Ronnie Salvador (Chairman of the Research Committee) and with the support of Dr. Delfin Gubatan Jr (Chief of Hospital), managed to establish their own Research Ethics Committee at a short period of time. They initially applied to REMB-1 on April 4, 2019 and after complying with the accreditors’ comments and recommendations, they have been granted the provisional Level 2 accreditation. As Level 2 Accredited, the DOH DTRC Dagupan REC can now review all types of research except clinical trials required for FDA registration of new drugs, and post marketing studies. These may entail more than minimal risk to human participants involved on the research.