History

The Consortium of Academic Programs in Clinical Research facilitates the development of high-quality educational programs encompassing all areas of clinical research that are based in academic credit-granting institutions.

2023

Ohio State University’s Graduate Research Programs were accredited.

2019

Durham Technical Community College’s Clinical Trials Research Associate [AAS] program was accredited.

2018

Arizona State University’s graduate program in Clinical Research Management was the first program to be accredited!

2017

The CAAHEP Board of Directors accepted the CAAPCR Standards and Guidelines.

2014

The CoAPCR Core Competence working group published, “Moving from Compliance to Competency: a harmonized core competency framework for the clinical research professional” in the Clinical Researcher Journal, volume 28, Issue 3.

2013

CoAPCR President Carolynn Jones and Treasurer Stephen Sonstein attended several CAAHEP events in 2013 to promote the acceptance of clinical research careers and  the need for clinical research education becoming increasingly vital.  Clinical research was accepted as a "profession" by CAAHEP and CoAPCR was granted membership to the organization.  Stephen Sonstein is leading the Commission on Accreditation (CoA) for CoAPCR and began the process of developing a committee and sponsoring organizations who will participate by including a member to the CoA.  Members of the CoA from CoAPCR including: Stephen Sonstein, Chair; Sara Pekel, Carolynn Jones and Barbara Gladson met with our CAAHEP mentor, Dr. Bernie Cohen, during DIA.  Further, CoAPCR has taken a lead in a Task Force on Clinical Research Core Competencies that was formed during the MAGI meeting in 2013 in Boston. A second Task Force meeting occurred during DIA.  Great progress is expected by this group who include members from industry, Harvard, ACRP, CITTI, CITI, and regulatory authorities.  Additional information can be found in our August 2013 Newsletter.  Additional alliances have grown for CoAPCR, including working with MAGI and ACRP who are committed to the mission of CoAPCR and our students.  Future opportunities for students will arise from these alliances, as well as improvement in clinical research education generally.  MAGI is offering a call for student submissions for a writing competition.  Details about this can be found at this link: COAPCR and MAGI Student Writing Competition Nov 2013.

New officers were elected for Treasurer: Marjorie Neidecker (Ohio State).  Carolynn Thomas Jones continues for another year as President and Barbara Gladson continues for another year as Secretary.    A call for nominations for President-Elect will be issued during Fall, 2013.

 

2012

The CoAPCR submitted their application to CAAHEP in July of 2012 and is anticipates receiving feedback on this application in October, 2012.  A workshop at the DIA, lead by Stephen Sonstein, Honorio Silva and Carolynn Thomas Jones was attended by a multipdisciplinary group who dialogued about core competencies in clinical research after presentations about Physician,  Nurse and CoAPCR contributions to defining core competencies.  Several discussions are underway to vision ways that CoAPCR can collaborate with groups such as ACRES (Alliance for Clinical Research Excellence and Safety) and industry.

A publication by members on core competencies in clinical research was published in the May-June issue by Research Practitioner.  This is the first of future publications that the membership intends to develop as the road to validating core competencies and structuring accreditation is achieved.

 

2009-2011

 Additional work to the CoAPCR Core Competencies is reaching a final stage using a Delphi approach among the core working group.

Contact with an accrediting organization, The Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP)  www.caahep.org has been made for the purpose of investigating accrediting membership.

Revisions to a database of existing programs are underway.

A presentation on CoAPCR by Carolynn Jones was made in November 2011 at the 3rd Annual Meeting of the International Association of Clinical Research Nurses (http://www.iacrn.org)

Membership Application was updated.

 

2007

The Consortium website www.coapcr.org became operational in March 2007 under the direction of Heidi Ehrenberger.

George Turner and Heidi Ehrenberger initiated application of an open access model for member development of a white paper on the status of “Clinical Research Education.”

 

2006

The Consortium brought to the forefront the dilemma of Education versus Experience for the entry-level clinical research professional (click to  download this presentation as pdf).

At the DIA 42nd Annual Meeting, Stephen Sonstein coordinated and presented at a session titled “The Pipeline of New Personnel for the Clinical Research Enterprise .” (click to download as pdf).

 

2005

A database of academic programs in clinical research was developed with associated metrics. Data collected from each program included number of faculty (part-time and full-time), number of students (part-time and full-time), number of courses, credits, practicum requirements as well as other indicators.

 

2004

The formation of the Consortium was featured in CenterWatch Weeky (April 5, 2004)

Consortium members Stephen Sonstein and Carl Hornung participated in the May 2004 NIH Roadmap Workshop: Clinical Research Training.
(click to  download as pdf )

 

2003

The Consortium of Academic Programs in Clinical Research (CoAPCR) was founded in 2003 with the support of the Drug Information Association (DIA) and incorporated in the state of Michigan, USA.  An independent, nonprofit corporation, the Consortium has more than doubled in size since its inception. The 7 founding members of the Consortium and their respective academic program affiliation were as follows:

Richard Day, University of New South Wales

Tony Dren, Duke University

Carlton Hornung, University of Louisville

Margaret Ann Skelton, George Washington University

Elliott Sogol, Campbell University

Stephen Sonstein, Eastern Michigan University

George Turner, Duke University

The Logo for the Consortium was designed by Tony Dren, Duke University.

Initially, the Consortium President and Treasurer managed the meetings, records, and financial matters. Meetings would consist of an Annual Meeting at the DIA Annual Meeting and an occasional additional meeting on a specific topic.

 

 

Consortium Presidents

2004    Stephen Sonstein

2005    Carl Hornung

2006    Jim Parmentier

2007    Heidi Ehrenberger

2008    Melissa Ockert

2010    Barbara Gladson

2012    Carolynn Thomas Jones

2015    Carl Hornung

2017    Bill Gluck