The Working Group Health Care from the Laboratory Committee held a meeting, hosted by ESYD, the Hellenic NAB, on the 28 and 29 November 2017, at Thessaloniki.

This meeting was attended by 33 representatives of EA members from 22 countries, as well as with representatives of European Scientific Associations such as European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFLM), MedTech Europe, EuroGentest.

The WG Health Care discussed inter alia the following issues:

  • Situation of health care, medical laboratories and the use of accreditation in Greece
  • Point of Care testing POCT: Application of ISO 15189 in combination with ISO 22870
  • Breast Cancer Services (BCS): Accreditation of “pathology” laboratories
  • Report from RENAR (National Accreditation Body of Romania) about the requirements of ISO 15189, clause 5.10 Laboratory Information Management System
  • New regulation on IvD (in vitro diagnostic medical devices) and the impact on medical laboratories
  • Collaboration between EA and EFI (European Federation for Immunogenetics)
  • New standard ISO/DIS 20387 – Biotechnology – Biobanking – General requirements for biobanking

During that meeting, Ms Aliki Stathopoulou, Head of the Testing and Clinical Laboratories Accreditation Department of the Laboratories Accreditation Division of ESYD, was elected Vice-Chair of the working group.

The next meeting of EA WG Health Care will be hosted by NAH, the Hungarian NAB in June 2018 in Budapest.