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acrp certification exams and exam review courses were successfully held in china
as organized by shanghai clinical research center (scrc), acrp cra/cpi/crc certification exams were successfully held in beijing and shanghai on march 7th, 2009.
as stated on the acrp web site, "certification is the formal recognition of clinical research professionals who have met professional eligibility requirements and demonstrated a baseline level of job-related knowledge and skills. demonstrating commitment to the quality of clinical research through certification benefits the public through ensuring the development and preservation of the highest quality and standards in clinical research. growing feedback from pharmaceutical companies and clinical sites indicates that there are fewer errors, lower costs, more rapid turnaround and greater safety in trials when certified personnel are involved."
the three exams available are: physician investigator (pi), clinical research coordinator (crc), and clinical research associate (cra). twenty-five people took the exam on march 7th, including 6 pis from shanghai mental health center and the central hospital of xuhui district, and 19 cras from multinational pharmaceutical companies such as roche, sanofi-aventis, astrazeneca and amway. all the participants are required to have at least two years working experience in clinical research, though some had more.
the certification exam and acrp educational course is anticipated to be a good start of professional training in china. "we will organize cra, crc and pi exams again this september.we expect that the number of attendants will be doubled by that time," stated sally sha, the training director of scrc.
in addition to the exams, scrc also held certification exam review courses on february 20th and 21st in shanghai. the instructor, hooi hooi lew, an acrp senior trainer from singapore, was warmly welcomed and highly regarded by the trainees. most of the trainees found the courses helpful in the preparation for the exams.
the organizer of these activities, shanghai clinical research center ("scrc") is a non-profit organization founded under the joint efforts of the science and technology ministry of china and shanghai municipality. its mission is to improve clinical research in china meet global standards for clinical trials. as acrp’s exclusive partner in china, scrc has been actively making efforts to introduce relevant acrp courses into china. "this is just a start," sally sha added.
the acrp courses systematically bring ich-gcp, project management and other fundamentals and the best practices of clinical research in a unique way to allow the trainees to develop their research skills gradually. by taking the courses and the certification exams, chinese clinical researchers are anticipated to improve their clinical research practices by better following the principals of ich-gcp and other science and ethics standards. |
