Ethics Committees: Challenge of evidence-based accreditation

Accreditation of Ethics Committee (EC) is a public recognition by the National Healthcare Accreditation body, of the achievement of accreditation standards confirmed by an independent external peer assessment of EC's level of performance in relation to the established standards.[1] In 2015, the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH) announced accreditation of ECs, which was voluntary in nature. This accreditation requirement will become mandatory for ECs from next year. Accreditation is expected to improve quality and capacity of ECs, resulting in benefits for subjects, investigators, site staff, institutions, and regulatory authorities. However, these benefits of NABH Accreditation of ECs are yet to be assessed and confirmed