In 1996, St. Paul’s Hospital Iloilo Ethics Committee was constituted. This was the beginning of Bioethics Committee. It was on June 27, 2006 that the Ethics Committee revised their existing policies and guidelines for the comprehensive and efficient review of researches that involved human participants. In cases of research and experimentation involving human subjects, the Committee made sure that the Clinical researches conform to the moral and scientific principles that justify the research.
The participants were well informed of the Study. Informed consents were signed, the subjects were free to terminate the study on any stage and for whatever reason and that the clinical research followed the national and international guidelines for the protection of the safety and well-being of the participants.
On November 1, 2007, the name of Ethics Committee was changed to St. Paul’s Hospital Ethics Review Board (IERB). In July 2014, the Administrator appointed Sr. Henrietta Esmero, SPC as a new member to replace Sr. Rowena Rodil, SPC who received a new assignment in Luzon. The Administrator also changed the name of St. Paul’s Hospital Ethics Review Board to Institutional Review Board Committee.
On February 27, 2015, Philippine Health Research Ethics Board released a memorandum addressing all the Ethics Review Committees to submit application for Accreditation in order to review clinical trials research protocols of drugs and devices for FDA registration. On April 30 of 2015, SPHI submitted an application for Level 3 Accreditation to the Philippines Health Research Ethics Board. This move was an evidence of SPHI’s commitment to submit to International and National Standard practices pertaining to the conduct of all types of researches.
