CNAS Held Workshop on Accreditation of Medical Laboratories

A Workshop on Medical Laboratories was held in Guangzhou China hosted by China National Accreditation Service of Conformity Assessment (CNAS) on 27--29, Jan, 2007.

Experts in the fields of laboratory accreditation or laboratory medicine from Canada, Mainland of China, Hong Kong and  Chinese Taipei attended the workshop. They jointly exchanged and discussed the experiences and existing problems in the accreditation of medical laboratories and implementation of ISO 15189.

Two government departments related to the medical laboratory regulation, Certification and Accreditation Administration (CNCA) and Ministry of Health (MOH), P. R. China had shown great interests in the discussions at the workshop.  They both sent representatives to participate and made speeches at the workshop.

The Workshop covered topics of some common interests in those economies regarding accreditation and regulation of medical laboratories, including setting up and marketing for the medical laboratory accreditation program, the relationship between the government regulation and the accreditation, the process of accreditation and the ways to enhance its credibility, the major difficulties in implementation of ISO 15189, the possibilities of strengthening cooperation among the region and the sharing of expertise and other technical resources such as PT programs. The workshop also reviewed the progress of international mutual recognition arrangement in the field of medical laboratory accreditation.

The workshop was conducted in both English and Chinese languages, which had led to a better communication and understanding among the colleagues from this group of economies than that at any other similar international forum.

The workshop is recognized by the relevant government authorities in China as a very informative and in-depth forum in the field of medical laboratory accreditation and regulation, and the results from this workshop will form useful inputs into the relevant policy making process in China.

The workshop is also highly appreciated by the participating parties as a successful experience sharing opportunity, and it opened the door to closer technical cooperation in the field medical laboratory accreditation among the region. To this end, all parties agreed to continue with this form of experience sharing in future, taking into consideration the results from this workshop.