The level of laboratory accreditation in the Indian healthcare industry is dismal despite tremendous progress made by this sector. Out of over 100,000 laboratories in India hardly 100 laboratories are accredited so far.

At a quality assurance seminar organised by Bio-Rad Laboratories in association with Quality Council of India (QCI), which addressed the standards in diagnostic laboratories, Dr Venkatesh Thuppil, lead assessor of NABL, said, "Laboratories must follow necessary quality assurance procedures based on the internationally accepted statistical methodologies".

He said that QCI and NABL, which are the representative bodies of the Centre which have been actively engaged in propagating for accreditation in association with Bio-Rad Laboratories.

"Awareness seminars like these focus on accreditation requirements of a diagnostic laboratory and other relevant issues concerning quality control" said Dhiren Wagle, the country manager for 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".

The seminar also focused on need for upgrading and enforcing laboratory practices all over the country. The participants at the seminar included representatives from leading accreditation agencies, diagnostic laboratories and accreditation agencies of Government of India. The seminar is a part of a series of similar workshops that have been held at other cities in the past.

Quality Council of India is an autonomous body under the Government of India, which establishes and operates 'National Accreditation Structure' for assessment bodies. NABL is an apex body under the Government of India engaged in providing accreditation to laboratories.

Representing COLA, the world's largest medical laboratory education, consultation, and accreditation organization, Maxfield L Williams 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 Government. Bio-Rad has been a pioneer in this field internationally; According to the organizers, interactions with the experts would help spread awareness on critical issues of labs not being accredited in terms of right diagnostics and dissemination of test reports.