VI Congress of Medical Microbiology – Accreditation of Microbiology Laboratories

25th June 2008 - On 14th June VI Congress of Medical Microbiology entitled “MIKROMED 2008” was organised in Belgrade by the Association of Medical Microbiologist of Serbia, Section of Microbiologists of the Serbian Medical Society and Serbian Society of Microbiologists. 

During the Section of the Congress addressing accreditation of microbiology testing laboratories Dr Dejan Krnjajić, Director of the Accreditation Board of Serbia (ATS), introduced new trends as regards legislation, standards and implementation thereof throughout Europe and Serbia to the present attendees.

Publishing of the Serbian version of ISO standard 15189:2008 entitled “Medical Laboratories-special requests for quality and competency” was a prerequisite to attain accreditation of medical laboratories in Serbia.

Dr Ljubinka Gligić, a Senior Adviser with the ATS, presented activities related to the development of the programme (scheme) for the accreditation of medical laboratories in Serbia as per the new standard - ISO 15189:2008. Specific quality of work in microbiology laboratories and the lack of detailed instructions and recommendations during accreditation of microbiology laboratories led to the development of the new ATS document based on the Guide EA-04/10:2002  “Accreditation for Microbiology Laboratories”.

When issues  related to organisation and assessment of schemes for inter-laboratory testing were raised Vida Živković, MSc, an Assistant Director for Accreditation Issues, emphasised the importance of an ATS document  based on ISO/IEC Directive 43 and entitled “Rules on the Participation in Inter-laboratory Comparisons and Schemes for Testing Conformity” to the said issues.