NAIM was the first to offer IRB certification and it certified IRB employees for 15 years, 1994-2009.  Over that period, it certified about 800 people.  More than 1,000 candidates attempted to pass the exam.  At the May 2008 convention, certification responsibility was permanently released to the certification committee.  NAIM no longer certifies human subject protection employees.

In the near future, the committee will announce its name, process, and give its address for the summer class.  When that information is received, it will be posted on the NAIM web page under the announcement menu.  NAIM will examine its last class in December 2008.

Re-certification will continue to be in place, at NAIM, for the certified population.  They may certify by transcript or by taking the exam for education.  The cost is the same.

If certifying by transcript, one must send the following:

1. The application, this paper if one does not have the application
2. A meeting transcript or indicate certifying by exam
3. Payment
4. Certification number

Name: _______________________________Certification Number________

Title: ______________________ Organization ________________________

Address: _______________________________________________________

City: ______________________________ State ______ Zip _____________

Telephone Number (          ) ____-________, Fax: (          ) ____-__________

E-mail:  Printed clearly: __________________________________________

Signed:            __________________________Date: __________________

If your organization requires an invoice, your invoice number will be the year then hyphen, followed by the day and month, 08-0910.  If will be more than one person needing to re-certify, the first person will show an additional hyphen 1, then 2 and on and on.  This is your invoice and number.

If certifying by exam, there will be two exam periods a year.  They will be exactly six months apart.  One re-certification exam will be administered on June 15th and the other re-certification exam will be administered on December 15th.  The candidates for re-certification by exam will have 30 days to complete the exam.  The association will have 30 days to release the results.

If re-certifying by exam, one falls under the exam rule he or she originally used to certify, except the person re-certifying by exam must complete and return the exam to get credit.  To get certified, in a previous year, one had to pass the exam.  One is not required to pass this take home exam but one time.

There is no goal of controlling human subject protection education or to control learning.  The goal is to require objective education of the certified person’s choice.

If certifying by a meeting transcript, the meeting must be 1) outside of one’s place of employment, 2) it must be with an objective faculty, 3) and it must have an appropriate length.  If one has a question and it concerns excellent human subject protection education on his or her State Flagship University Medical School’s campus with a well known professor and it was one-half day, rather than inquire, that person should take the exam.  If one has question about the requirement, that person should submit the package and let NAIM make contact.

An example of objective education programs includes but not limited to:

1. FDA or OHRP participating programs of any length
2. ACRP
3. The National Association of IRB Managers
4. SoCRA
5. PRIM&R
6. University or college class, appropriate topic
7. University and College workshops, appropriate length and faculty
8. Dual certification with another human subject protection organization
9. Conference faculty preparation and listing

Re-certification is for three years.
Certificates will be issued following each of the two periods for testing, February and July.

Over the years, NAIM certified the number of people as shown below: