Quality Assurance in Molecular Diagnosis: The UK Experience

Molecular genetic diagnosis is a relatively young discipline and also one of the fastest growing among clinical laboratory sciences. The majority of diagnostic laboratories in this field emerged from groups active in research into human genetic disease, and the development of a service-oriented structure from more loosely organized research laboratories was the first priority for the provision of an efficient diagnostic service. In April 1988, the Clinical Molecular Genetics Society (CMGS) was constituted as the professional body representing molecular geneticists working in a diagnostic capacity in the United Kingdom (UK). This organization quickly saw the need for a central system of external quality assurance (EQA), and a subcommittee was set up to establish such a scheme.