[ISO 15189 accreditation and future perspectives-Chairmen's introductory remarks]

Recently, transparency of the organization administration and patient-centered medical care such as patient service and satisfaction have been demanded in the medical field. The role of the clinical laboratory, one of the organizations in the medical field, is to provide quality laboratory data to improve diagnosis and treatment. Other than clinical laboratory facilities, education and the ability of staff to use it, the management of the organization must be appropriate to produce high quality laboratory data. International guidance on how to manage a laboratory is shown in ISO 15189. Clinical laboratories with ISO accreditation in Europe, Australia and Asia are increasing. On the other hand, only 60 institutions (10 national university hospitals, 4 public private university hospitals, 12 private hospitals and 34 referral laboratories) are accredited in Japan. Six speakers spoke at this symposium about the accreditation system of ISO 15189, the experiences of the acquiring institution and the effect of acquisition, as well as the future prospects of ISO 15189. This was a good opportunity to become informed about the current situation of ISO 15189 in Japan and internationally.