News — 2005
We were delighted to be invited to EuroGentest’s first workshop on IT support for Quality Management, which was held in Leuven, Belgium from the 15th to the 16th of September. The EuroGentest Network of Excellence is an EU-funded project that is aimed at structuring, harmonising and improving the quality of genetic testing services throughout the European Union. With 1500 laboratories throughout the EU equipped to perform genetic testing services and with annual growth in the requirement for testing between 100 and 300%, laboratories are under increasing pressure to offer services of the highest quality and to ensure that Europeans can benefit from the same high standards of genetic medical care. The EuroGentest network comprises six Units, with Unit 1, Quality Management and accreditation/certification of genetic testing, as the Network’s key unit. Organised by Unit 1, the initial workshop brought together more than 30 laboratory professionals from throughout the EU, to evaluate eQMS solutions through presentations, workshop and Q&A sessions. Professor Jean-Jacques Cassiman, Project Coordinator, EuroGentest: ‘Genetic testing currently is highly fragmented and varying in quality. This leads in turn to lack of adequate counseling and thus increases anxiety amongst patients and their families. Standardisation and quality improvement is a massive task that can only practically be attempted through a collaborative effort, with the support of the EU, such as EuroGentest.’ Martin Bowman, Gael Quality Sales & Marketing Manager: ‘In participating in EuroGentest, our objective was to ensure that attendees had a clear understanding of the benefits available to them through electronic QMS such as Q-Pulse. With more than 250 laboratories in the UK and Ireland managing accreditation with Q-Pulse, another objective was to ensure that the attendees were fully aware of the competencies possessed by Gael in the laboratory accreditation environment. We are very pleased to report that both objectives were achieved.’ For further information please contact: |