Casro’s CIRQ certifies first US panel company as ISO-compliant

M3 USA sought certification to cover the operation and management of its online physician panel, MDLinx. Auditing and certification were carried out through the Casro Institute for Research Quality (CIRQ), which was set up as an independent subsidiary of the trade association in May last year.

Craig Overpeck, M3’s operations chief for global research, said the ISO was “an indisputable, international standard in quality research that any client or agency can recognise the world over”.

But despite being widely adopted in Europe and Asia, there was some resistance last year to attempts to encourage US companies to become ISO-certified.

Maritz Research was the first company to be certified by CIRQ to the ISO 20252 research quality standard in June last year.