Seminar

Bio-Rad Laboratories and QCI organise Quality Awareness Seminar

Bio-Rad Laboratories in association with Quality Council of India (QCI), Government of India recently organised a seminar on quality control in diagnostic laboratories. The seminar focused on need for improving quality for better patient care.

The participants at the seminar included representatives from leading diagnostic laboratories and accreditation agencies like COLA, USA. The seminar is a part of a series of similar workshops that have been held at other cities in the past two years.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Venkatesh Thuppil, who is an advisor to QCI, said, "Laboratories are required to follow quality assurance procedures based on the internationally-accepted standards." He further added that "Out of over 1,00,000 laboratories in India, less than 100 laboratories are accredited, which is a dismally low figure for a country that is amongst the fastest developing in the world."

"Awareness seminars like these focus on accreditation requirements of a diagnostic laboratory and other relevant issues concerning quality control," said Dhiren Wagle, Country Manager, Bio-Rad Laboratories. "The company is working with various regulatory agencies towards its endeavour of promoting quality control practices and spreading awareness on the issue amongst the public at large," Wagle said.

Speaking on behalf of COLA, Maxfield L Williams, Director, Policy & External Affairs, said, "It is estimated that 70 per cent of clinical diagnoses and treatment decisions are based on diagnostic data- including that from laboratories. It is imperative that we give laboratory testing the attention it deserves."

Recent times have seen a major thrust on adherence to quality practices by the Government. The seminar saw some insightful presentations by representatives of both private and Government agencies. Seminar's like these shall help spread awareness on the need to upgrade testing and diagnostic facilities in the country, and also spread consciousness amongst the general public on the damage that unaccredited and rudimentary laboratories can cause to them.

EH News Bureau