CRO SynteractHCR recognized by Swiss for clinical training program

21-Jul-2014 - Last updated on 22-Jul-2014 at 07:59 GMT

This is the second time this year the program has been recognized

A Swiss association has recognized the European Centre for Clinical Research Training (ECCRT), a SynteractHCR company, for training investigators and sub-investigators on GCP (good clinical practice).

The recognition by the Swiss Association of Ethics Committees for Clinical Trials is the second time this year that SynteractHCR has been recognized for its work in training investigators. In April, big pharma industry group TransCelerate recognized the training programs of CROs Icon and SynteractHCR.

Gerald Van Roey, manager, training department at SynteractHCR in Brussels, told Outsourcing-Pharma.com, “The recognition validates that the training program SynteractHCR has in place meets standards of quality critical to global industry groups focused on the ethical conduct of clinical research.

“The collaboration with Swissethics ensures that as our program evolves, it will clearly focus on issues of relevance to the ethical bodies and the industry as a whole: process improvement, standardization and clinical research excellence, to ensure a continued quality of care for patients involved in clinical studies. Recognition by this group and by Transcelerate will help us to get a foot in the door to get recognized by other ECs and standards bodies as well,” Van Roey said.

He noted that it’s likely this training program may be more widely adopted in the near future. Once accredited by TransCelerate, “ECCRT is recognized by all members of the organization as an approved training facility for investigators – which in turn, means that all investigators trained by this facility meet the standards established,” Van Roey said. “Given the efficiencies of this model, we anticipate the ECCRT training program will be adopted more widely as we strive to set standards of excellence within the clinical research training environment industry wide.”

STAR Programme

In addition, the SynteractHCR training center has been chosen by the Association of Clinical Research Professionals (ACRP) as a collaboration partner to develop and implement the “STAR Programme,” a comprehensive clinical research training and development program being offered across Europe.

The new ECCRT/ACRP STAR Programme is a 15-month training and professional development program that aims to ensure participating clinical researchers have the level of experience that employers desire in research staff as well as the requisite expertise to sit for ACRP Certification Exams.

“We believe that as more and more people attend programs like the 15-month ECCRT/ACRP STAR Programme, learn good clinical practices and sit for certification exams, it will raise both the efficiency and quality levels of clinical practice across the industry, and will reinforce the need for all clinical research coordinators, CRAs, and investigators to have standardized training,” Van Roey said.