Laboratory Accreditation

BASES Laboratory Accreditation is a quality assurance process that provides clients and service purchasers with a means of confirming the appropriateness of a laboratory to conduct physiological testing. The Accreditation process uses a written submission from the laboratory together with a detailed inspection visit to assess the appropriateness of the laboratory’s facilities, equipment, procedures and staffing. To become Accredited, a laboratory must be under the Directorship of a suitable Accredited Sport and Exercise Scientist, the facilities must meet the standards established for lab accreditation, equipment and techniques must be used with due regard for calibration, validity and reliability, exercise testing and other measurements must be conducted in accordance with appropriate protocols and adhere to safety considerations, data must be accurately interpreted and the feedback provided to clients must be informative and be communicated in such a way as to be useful to the client.

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Changes to Lab Accreditation and Physiology Accreditation

By 2007 it will be mandatory for all BASES laboratories applying for Lab Accreditation or Re-Accreditation to have a defibrillator as a compulsory item of equipment and that they should have staff trained in its use. By 2007 all accredited staff and supervisees should have immediate life support training (ILS). Moreover, some form of rhythm disturbance recognition training will be required for accreditation and supervised experience programmes. This should be in place for Supervised Experience by 1 April 2007 and accreditation by 1 Jan 2007.

The face of physiology laboratory accreditation will change from 1 July 2010. The increasing member numbers and diversity of sport and exercise science activity has meant that not all physiology laboratories are capable of providing an array of activity despite being able to evidence rigorously high standards of in laboratory maintenance and science application. This article highlights the changes in laboratory accreditation to reflect the needs of our membership and also the key areas that must be fulfilled in order to gain BASES Laboratory Accreditation.

Historically, BASES Laboratory Accreditation has successfully provided quality assurance of exercise physiology laboratories in the UK that are under the direction of BASES accredited members. Traditionally the process was geared towards well-stocked laboratories that provided diverse functions in teaching and learning as well as scientific support and research. It did not necessarily cater for laboratories providing more bespoke activities despite having demonstrably high standards relating to quality assurance.

At the annual BASES Laboratory Directors’ meeting (September, 2007), it was suggested and unanimously agreed that the current process may need to be revised in order to reflect the increasing diversity and demands of the current membership. A more inclusive process will allow specialist laboratories, such as the Home Nations’ Institutes and professional sports, such as football, to apply for accreditation, whereas previously they felt unable to meet the requirements; these views were confirmed via an on-line questionnaire distributed to the BASES membership in 2007.

A working party that comprised representatives from health and exercise, sport and performance with strong records in both research and support activity was formed. Based on the responses from the questionnaire, it was the group’s responsibility to agree what elements should be included to, 1) address the challenges of inclusion for our diverse membership, and 2) still maintaining good laboratory practice and hence a high degree of quality assurance. The commonly agreed factors that underpin laboratory accreditation are presented in Table 1. The key element of the new process is to award accreditation on laboratory practice rather than the ability to administer a plethora of generic tests. However, it is exceptionally important that quality will not be compromised and that BASES will award laboratory accreditation based on high levels of laboratory practice.