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Children's Hospital Boston has a long history of clinical innovation, including the world's first surgical repair of a congenital heart defect in 1938 and the first successful remission of leukemia in 1947. In addition, many advances in pediatric treatment have been made because of clinical research conducted at Children's Hospital. Today, Children's Office of Clinical Investigation oversees the protection of human research subjects and provides guidance to 250 physician/investigators conducting 600 research protocols.
To achieve AAHRPP accreditation, Children's underwent a rigorous approval process that included a comprehensive self assessment, on-site evaluation by a team of experts, and approval by the AAHRPP's Council on Accreditation, a body composed of physicians, legal experts, medical researchers, patients and community members chosen to represent public/participant, human research protection, research, and institutional perspectives.
''Nearly all children's hospitals participate in clinical trials and in health research of some type,'' according to Dr. James Mandell, Children's Hospital Boston president and CEO, ''and one-third of children's hospitals operate child health research centers. We believe that we have a responsibility to help set the standard for quality child research and informed parental consent and are therefore delighted to be the first children's hospital to achieve this accreditation.''
To help families learn about clinical research and what it means to participate in a clinical trial, Children's Hospital Boston developed The Parents' Guide to Medical Research. This interactive website, funded through a grant from the National Institutes of Health, is designed to help parents ask questions and gather information that would be useful in deciding whether or not to give permission for their child to be in a research study.
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