The American Society for Clinical Pathology has announced that the ASCP Board of Registry was awarded accreditation by the American National Standards Institute for a period of five years.

ANSI has created the benchmark of excellence in U.S. voluntary standardization and conformity assessment systems since 1918. The ASCP-BOR, founded in 1928, is the preeminent certification agency for clinical laboratory personnel.

"Achieving and maintaining ANSI accreditation of ASCP-BOR certification programs is a major achievement," said E. Blair Holladay, PhD, SCT(ASCP)CM, Vice President and Executive Director of the ASCP's Board of Registry. "We are very proud to say that our process meets the high quality requirements verified by ANSI's independent, objective review. Many thanks to all of the ASCP volunteers and staff who have assisted in achieving this goal."

ANSI is the sole U.S. representative of the two major non-treaty international standards organizations, International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). ANSI assesses conformity to an international standard (ISO/IEC, 17024) for the recognition of certification bodies at the national and international level. Organizations apply for and obtain a stamp of approval only after going through a rigorous quality review of not only their product or service, but also their organization as a whole based on globally accepted standards.

"This is quite a significant accomplishment," said Kenneth Emancipator, MD, FASCP, Board of Registry, Board of Governors Financial Officer. "ISO Certifications are difficult to get. Many organizations spend millions of dollars preparing for them. I think this demonstrates that the BOR has great systems in place, and great staff executing those systems."

ANSI provides confidence to employers of laboratory professionals that ASCP-BOR certification programs are technically competent and consistently reliable. It re-confirms that ASCP-BOR programs are the "gold-standard" in laboratory certification.

"In addition," said Holladay, "ANSI accreditation provides the mechanism to increase the quality of our examinations, facilitates government recognition, provides the basis for international recognition by governments in other countries, promotes international mobility of our certificants, and most importantly, enhances the consumer and public confidence of our certification examinations."

"This is obviously quite a coup," said Carol S. Duncan, MA, Board of Registry, Board of Governors, "I must say I am even more honored to be associated with this organization!"