Forums in the form of a TV set for bodies accredited by Laboratories and Healthcare divisions 

Cofrac organized two forums in the form of a TV set in less than two months. The first one, in November 2022 for the Healthcare division and the second in January 2023, for the Laboratories division.

 

The Healthcare division forum

After the first event organized and held face-to-face in 2018, the long awaited – since 2020 – second Healthcare forum was completely redesigned and took place in the form of a TV set, filmed and broadcast live from Paris in November 2022. The topic for this edition was “Accreditation in Healthcare: the evolutions” and was dedicated to the professionals concerned (medical biologists, ACP doctors, management, technicians, bio-medical engineers, risk managers, quality managers, …).

The programme for this half-day event included:

• a review of the section’s activities and objectives,
• feedback from biomedical laboratories on accreditation,
• a review of assessments,
• information on upcoming changes to the ISO 15189 standard,
• a look at laboratory accreditation,
• the topic of optimising assessment methods and accreditation management, and
• a review of accreditation in the field of Healthcare since the last event in 2018 by the Deputy General Director of Health.

The event was punctuated by a live survey to collect participants’ knowledge on the upcoming version of ISO 15189 standard, a presentation of the results of a study on accreditation and medical biology laboratories led by a specialised agency and the video from the Deputy General Director of Health.

531 people were connected during the live broadcast. 78 persons answered the feedback form, with 99.9% indicating they were satisfied or very satisfied with this program and new meeting platform. Since the live broadcast, this event has been viewed more than 863 times via the replay option.

 

The Laboratories division forum

As with the second event for the Healthcare division, the 11th edition of “Accreditation and Laboratories” took place for the first time remotely, again filmed and broadcast live from Paris in January 2023. Some of the members of the Health division were present on the “TV set” to encourage their colleagues in this new presentation style.

This event dedicated by the Laboratories division to accredited bodies and applicants according to the ISO/IEC 17025, ISO 17034 or ISO/IEC 17043 standards gathered 530 people in the “live studio”.

This year, the program for the event included the following topics:

• assessment and aim of the division,
• accreditation process with focuses on documents –
  • GEN REF 10 Traceability of measurement results, Cofrac policy and evaluation methods,
  • GEN REF 11 General rules for reference to accreditation and to international recognition arrangements, and
• GEN GTA 02 Accreditation Technical Guide,
• dematerialized information systems,
• deviation trend,
• digital transformation and a focus on the customer area;
• personalization of assessments, and
• international work.

The event was intersperced by live surveys to collect participants’ understanding on deviation trend and seven videos. The first video was a testimony from a laboratory, and the others were Chaired by the Presidents and Vice-Presidents of the different accreditation committees who questioned the Cofrac teams in the studio. To finish there was a remote exchange with a Representative from Accredia  covering EA (LC and MAC) and ILAC (AIC)  international work.

119 participants answered the feedback questionnaire with 98% indicating they were satisfied or very satisfied with this program and the new meeting style. Since the live broadcast, this event has been viewed more than 998 times using the replay function.