Introduction

EuroGentest NoE intends to harmonize and improve the overall quality of genetic testing services in Europe. A part of the project (Unit 1) focuses on accreditation and quality management and more in particular on training and continuous education of personnel.

A series of workshops had been organized so far, with the aim to aid laboratories in the process of developing quality systems and working towards accreditation. Besides this, the workshops also contribute to the harmonization of the approaches to accreditation of genetic testing services in Europe.

Different topics were already tackled, like accreditation, IT support in medical laboratories and internal audit. The ISO standards (ISO 15189 and ISO 17025) are the basis of all workshops, as well as CPA standards for medical laboratories and CCKL guidelines to a lesser degree.

The workshops are meant to be very interactive, with only brief formal presentations. Therefore to ensure the involvement of everybody, the number of participants are kept low.

EuroGentest partner "Management, Consulting & Research" (MCR) Leuven, a specialist in the "human side of change processes", participates actively in the organization and in the workshop itself. Their contributions lead to improved debates and concrete conclusions.

Target group

The workshop language is English. All workshops are of equal value to accredited and non accredited genetic testing labs.

Accreditation and quality management
Very general workshop for those who would like to learn more on quality management and accreditation or for those who would like to improve their current quality system.

Internal Audit
This workshop is mainly set up for those who are involved or will be involved in carrying out internal audits. The training will include preparation, execution and evaluation of an internal audit. A basic knowledge of accreditation and ISO (15189, 17025) or national standards (CPA, CCKL) is required.

Towards accreditation - Managing the human side of change
The participants of this workshop will include quality managers, lab directors and everybody who is responsible for driving the quality management system in his/her lab and who needs to get the buy-inn of others.

Last changed: 2008-02-07