External Quality Assessments
NP EN ISO 9001:2000
CGC considered necessary and convenient to participate in International External Quality Assessments, achieving a comfortable number of independent certifications for the different exams offered.
CGC laboratories integrate the most prestigious international quality control schemes, participating in various External Quality Assessments from several independent international organizations:
Fetal Medicine Foundation compliance for 1st trimester prenatal screening, since 2008.
Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA), since 2007
Annual evaluation by the United Kingdom National External Quality Assessment Scheme in Clinical Cytogenetics (UK-NEQAS), since 1995.
Quality control of the Associación Española de Diagnóstico Prenatal (AEDP), since 2001
Participation in the external quality control exercises organized by GEP-ISFG (Grupo Espanhol e Português- International Society of Forensic Genetics), since 1997.
European Molecular Biology Quality Network (EMQN) since 2002
Participation in the external quality control exercises organized by the European Network for Cystic Fibrosis (CFEQA), since 2003
Quality Control for Molecular Diagnosis (QCMD), since 2004
Cytogenetics European Quality Assessment (CEQA), since 2006
NP EN ISO 9001:2000
A permanent concern with technical accuracy and quality standards of services, led CGC to commit, from the beginning, with quality improvement which is confirmed by the participation in several External Quality Assessments. With this innovative and demanding spirit, CGC developed and implemented a Quality Management System which was certified in October 2004 by NP EN ISO 9001:2000 norm.
In the context of Quality Management System, fundamental principles of the CGC Quality Policy were defined as follows:
Quality service guarantee; Increase in offered services; Staff maximization; Guarantee of QMS maintenance.
This way, CGC assured a continual quality improvement, as well technical accuracy, which has always been a CGC trademark.
Paula Rendeiro
Biologist
Technical Director CGC Laboratories
