2008-07-21

Call for Interest: Nominations to Working Group on Medical Laboratories

As part of its accreditation program for medical laboratories, the Standards Council of Canada (SCC) along with its partners, the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) and the Bureau de normalisation du Québec (BNQ) have announced the formation of a Working Group (WG) to address conformity assessment requirements of medical laboratories operating in Canada. 

The decision to establish a working group was reached at a meeting of the program partners held on July 16, 2008.  It was agreed that the working group will have approximately 6 members, and that it will meet at least once a year. The convener of this working group will be a member of the SCC’s Task Group on Laboratories (TG Labs). Additional members will include representatives from the Ontario Laboratory Accreditation, Quality Management Program - Laboratory Services, Bureau de normalisation du Québec (BNQ) and the Standards Council of Canada, as well as academic institute in medical technology, Provincial professional colleges, and other organizations from various medical fields.

Scope of work:  

The working group shall undertake the following duties and responsibilities:

• propose requirements specific to the medical laboratory accreditation program and ensure the assessment process provides for verification of the conformance of laboratories to these requirements;
• provide guidelines for participation, designate and/or approve appropriate proficiency testing programs for participating laboratories and monitor their participation in those programs, as required;
• define an appropriate scope of medical laboratory testing for the program;
• provide guidelines for the selection of an appropriate assessment team and for conducting on-site assessment and reassessment of medical laboratories’ conformance; and
• develop additional documents required to support the medical laboratory accreditation program, as well as propose amendments to existing documents.

The program for medical laboratory accreditation, established in 2005, is based on the Canadian procedural document, CAN-P-11 (ISO 15189:2007).

For more information and to submit a nomination please contact David Dulmage, Manager PALCAN via email, [email protected] or by telephone +1 613 238 3222 ext. 436. 

The deadline for nominations is September 30th, 2008.

The Bureau de normalisation du Québec is an agency of the Government of Québec. It is accredited by the Standards Council of Canada as a standards development organization, a product certification body and a management systems certification body. For more than 15 years and in accordance with its Establishment Order, BNQ has been engaged in activities aimed at recognizing laboratory competence. For additional information on BNQ visit www.bnq.qc.ca. 

The Ontario Medical Association (OMA), founded in 1880, plays a vital role in the development and promotion of health-care services across Ontario.  The OMA operates the Quality Management Program - Laboratory services (QMP-LS), which has over 30 years of experience in quality assurance of medical laboratories. Its Ontario Laboratory Accreditation program has accredited about 230 medical laboratories. For additional information on the QMP-LS, visit: www.qmpls.org.  

The Standards Council of Canada (SCC) is a Crown corporation that promotes efficient and effective voluntary standardization in Canada. The SCC coordinates Canada's participation in the development of international standards and, as Canada's national standardization body, oversees the efforts of the National Standard System.  Its Program for Accreditation of Laboratories - Canada (PALCAN) has accredited about 400 laboratories in a variety of general testing and specialty areas. For more information on the Standards Council of Canada, visit www.scc.ca or e-mail [email protected].