Medical labs need accreditation

Medical laboratory services are essential for diagnosis and assessment of health of patients. These help physicians to provide correct treatment to their patients. A medical laboratory is often called clinical or diagnostic laboratory. The lab's aim is not only to provide accurate results, but also to do it within a timeframe under clinical management using appropriate laboratory procedures in compliance with ethics, confidentiality and safety standard.
The international standard ISO 15189 is the accreditation standard for all types of medical laboratories, whose primary focus is use of examination results in patient care and treatment. The standard outlines requirements of quality and competence of medical laboratory. Accreditation involves the independent assessment of a medical lab to determine its competence. It addresses qualifications and on-going competence of personnel involved in lab examinations, lab accommodation, equipment, reagents and supplies, pre-analytical and analytical factors, quality assurance considerations, and post-analytical factors.
Assessment usually covers all the activities of a laboratory such as arrangements for requisition, patient preparation, identification, collection of samples, transportation, storage, processing and examination of clinical samples, together with subsequent result validation, interpretation, reporting and advice. Medical laboratory services should, therefore, meet the needs of all patients, clinical personnel responsible for patient care and any other interested parties.
The Bangladesh Accreditation Board (BAB) technical assessors, who are obviously specialists in scientific and clinical expertise in the relevant discipline of practice, conduct a thorough evaluation of all factors in the laboratory that affect production of test data, including:
* technical competence of staff;
* validity and appropriateness of test methods;
* sample quality and testing environment;
* traceability of measurements and suitability, calibration and maintenance of test equipment;
* quality assurance of test data;
* acceptable turn-around time and application of appropriate ethical values.
Accreditation brings many benefits to regulators, patients and users of lab services and lab itself. In regulation, accreditation can be used as a tool to support the commissioning or specification of medical laboratory services that are technically competent, safe and reliable.
Accreditation helps restore confidence and trust to patients and users that the lab has up-to-date-technologies and techniques and the staff are providing competent service, able to produce a valid test result of patients' sample. The biggest benefits of accreditation go to laboratory itself. Accreditation provides proof that a laboratory complies with the best practice and provides international recognition.
The BAB has started receiving application from various medical laboratories in Bangladesh, especially those which are operating in Dhaka. It is going to conduct its assessment using its qualified assessors. The Board has  expertise and capability to provide medical laboratory accreditation services from the Norwegian accreditation that is in institutional cooperation with the BAB.
The writer is an Assistant Director of Bangladesh Accreditation Board (BAB), the Ministry of Industries.  [email protected]