The Finnish Accreditation Service, FINAS, has granted accreditation to the Gene Diagnostics Laboratory operating in the Genome Center of Eastern Finland, as well as to the Biomarker Laboratory of the UEF Brain Research Unit under the SFS-EN ISO 15189:2013 quality and qualification standard, effective from March 2018. In Finland, FINAS is the designated national accreditation body referred to in European legislation, offering organisations an opportunity to be evaluated in accordance with international standards in an unbiased and independent manner.
The accreditation is a significant recognition of the quality of the laboratories’ activities, verifying that they produce laboratory services that are reliable and stand international comparison. Furthermore, the laboratories’ internal auditing, reporting and management practices meet the requirements of the standard. Often, it is a requirement in Finnish and international competitive tendering that the laboratories demonstrate their qualifications through an accreditation.
The accredited activities of the Gene Diagnostics Laboratory (accreditation code T321) comprise 30 DNA analyses for monogenic diseases and for evaluating the efficacy and side effects of drug therapy. Every year, the Gene Diagnostics Laboratory sequences and analyses approximately 500 patient samples from all over Finland, with instrumentation capacity for even a larger number of samples.
The scope of accreditation of the Biomarker Laboratory (accreditation code T320) comprises three cerebrospinal fluid analyses used in the diagnostics of Alzheimer’s disease.
The scopes of accreditation can be viewed on the FINAS website at www.finas.fi
For further information, please contact:
Professor Markku Laakso
Genome Center of Eastern Finland, University of Eastern Finland
Email: markku.laakso@uef.fi, tel. +358 40 672 3338
http://www.uef.fi/en/web/genediagnostics
Sanna-Kaisa Herukka, PhD
UEF Brain Research Unit, Biomarker Laboratory, University of Eastern Finland
email: sanna-kaisa.herukka@uef.fi, tel. +358 40 548 6247