The GSC has successfully met the accreditation requirements of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC Diagnostic Accreditation Program standards and been granted the internationally recognized DAP ISO 15189 accreditation award.

The Genome Sciences Centre is trusted with handling and assessing human samples to support patient care. The privilege and responsibility to ensure quality, competence and safety of patient samples and data is something that the GSC takes very seriously. 

In light of this, the GSC recently embarked on a thorough assessment of its policies and practices to meet the international best practice standards requirements for accreditation under the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia Diagnostic Accreditation Program (DAP).

DAP Certification

The GSC first received provisional DAP accreditation in 2019. In January of this year, it went through a full audit and received DAP ISO 15189 accreditation status. According to Miruna Bala, Head of Quality and Regulatory Affairs for the GSC, this means all GSC’s clinical operations are in full compliance with the DAP requirements.

Miruna Bala, who was instrumental in the GSC’s DAP application, outlined the advantages of receiving full accreditation status:

  1. It is a mandatory regulatory requirement in BC for any laboratory that provides clinical diagnostic services.
  2. The accreditation certificate provides assurance to our clients that our laboratory sets high quality standards for our clinical services and processes.
  3. Provincial and national recognition by regulatory bodies.
  4. Certification status will help us compete in new funding opportunities and will increase our chances in securing funding in our yearly, routine applications.

Ensuring Quality Care

In addition to DAP, the GSC is certified by the College of American Pathologists (CAP) to perform clinical genomic panel and whole genome testing. The GSC is also one of the only genome sequencing and bioinformatics facilities in Canada to receive ISO 27001 certification, a comprehensive international standard for information security management systems.

Director of the GSC, Dr. Steven Jones, emphasized why these levels of certification are important and integral to the work being done at the GSC. “We are sequencing genomes from patients and people who contribute to clinical trials,” said Dr. Jones. “We realize we have an incredible duty of care to make sure we protect those people’s identities and the sensitive information that may be within their genome. Our policies and processes are designed and implemented to ensure the data is safe."
 

"This facility has successfully met the accrediation requirements of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC Diagnostic Accreditation Program standards and been granted the internationally recognized DAP ISO 15189 accreditation award."

The complete DAP published scope of accreditation report is available here. 

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