Laboratories In India Research Articles

Prevalence of hepatitis C among haemodialysis patients in a tertiary care hospital in south India.

Background and Objectives:Hepatitis C is the most common hepatotropic viral infection that affects patients on maintenance hemodialysis. Most of the laboratories in India depend on HCV antibody detection by ELISA. PCR based studies on detection of HCV RNA among haemodialysis patients are very scanty in India. The current study was undertaken to find the prevalence of HCV among haemodialysis patients by ELISA and PCR.Materials and Methods:This prospective study was conducted from January to May 2018 in a total of 100 samples. Patients more than 18 years of age, who had undergone at least 15 sessions of dialysis were enrolled in the study. All samples were screened for HCV antibody by ELISA and HCV RNA by PCR. Data regarding age and gender of the patients, history of blood transfusion, duration of hemodialysis, total bilirubin levels were collected from medical records.Results:Among the 100 samples, only one was positive for HCV antibody by ELISA. Eight samples were positive for HCV RNA by PCR. In this study 62.5% of the HCV positives had a previous history of blood transfusion. Duration of dialysis was more among the HCV positive group but there was no statistical significance.Conclusion:This is the first study from the southern state of Kerala in India showing the prevalence of HCV among hemodialysis patients by PCR. Our study showed an overall HCV prevalence of 8% by PCR. All the PCR positive samples were negative by 3rd generation ELISA which is an alarming finding and further justifies the need for PCR for detecting HCV.

Challenges in Identification of Candida auris in Hospital Laboratories: Comparison Between HIC and LMIC

Background:Candida auris is an emerging nosocomial fungal pathogen causing invasive illness and outbreaks worldwide. A major issue regarding C. auris is that it can be misidentified unless appropriate technology is used. We conducted a survey of available methods for identification of C. auris in 21 hospital laboratories in India regarding their protocols for prevention of C. auris infection. Methods: The survey was an adaptation of a similar survey conducted for the Connecticut Laboratory Response Network in 2017. We mailed the survey to 30 microbiologists and ID physicians, and 21 of them from 12 states responded. All respondents were from private acute-care and teaching hospitals. The responses were analyzed and compared to the Connecticut study. Results: Of 21 hospitals, 19 (90.5%) can identify C. auris in house. Also, 18 (85.7%) have identified C. auris in the past 18 months. Species level identification was done only for blood cultures in all hospitals. Only 5 (26%) laboratories speciated Candida spp isolated from other sites such as respiratory and urinary specimens. Automated systems were used like Vitek 2 in 16 (84.2%), Phoenix BD in 2(10.5%) and Microscan in 1(5.26%) laboratory. MALDI-TOF MS and PCR for identification were used in 2 laboratories. Antifungal susceptibility testing is done in-house in 19 (90.5%) laboratories. Only 10 (52.6%) responding hospitals from India had infection prevention protocols for C. auris, and 9 (47.4%) of them isolated patients. The major challenges for infection prevention with C. auris are absence of screening in high-risk patients (66.7%), misidentification by automated systems (84.2%), and inability to speciate from nonsterile sites underestimates the prevalence (100%). Conclusions: There is an urgent need to enhance the capacity of hospital laboratories to detect C. auris early, and to implement infection prevention measures. In both studies early detection is the key and as suggested by the US authors, challenges can be overcome through collaboration between hospitals and referral laboratories when resources are limited. This optimizes laboratory capacity and prevents global spread through colonized patients. The limitation of this study is that data from public hospitals are unknown and larger studies are needed.Funding: NoneDisclosures: None

Pre-analytical, analytical, and post-analytical considerations while processing samples of COVID-19 patients: Perspective from a clinical chemistry laboratory in India

Background: Since its detection in December 2019 in the city of Wuhan, China, the COVID-19 pandemic has grappled the world. Laboratories have been central in the diagnosis, prognosis and therapeutic monitoring of COVID-19 patients. With this pandemic spreading, laboratory personnel have become vital in the efforts to halt the advance of the virus.
 Aims and Objective: In this article, we will address various concerns in all the three phases of testing of the COVID-19 blood and serum samples in a clinical chemistry laboratory and discuss the issues pertaining to a resource-limited setting.
 Materials and Methods: International, national and regional guidelines on bio-safety and operational management available at the time of preparation of this manuscript were analyzed. Additionally, literature search through PubMed was done on the keywords “bio-safety”, “pre-analytical”, “analytical”, “post-analytical” and “COVID-19”.
 Results: The pre-analytical, analytical, post analytical, general management problems we faced in our laboratory and the best practices that we followed to address the same has been included in this paper.
 Conclusion: Some unprecedented challenges the laboratories have encountered during this outbreak are maintaining the lab safety of highest standards, management of human resource while sustaining the quality of testing. Laboratories will have to constantly innovate in order to meet the demands of this outbreak.

Evaluation of Analytical Performance in Clinical Biochemistry Laboratory in India Using Six Sigma Methodology

Evaluation of Analytical Performance in Clinical Biochemistry Laboratory in India Using Six Sigma Methodology

Diagnosing Herpetic Genital Ulcers in a Resource-Limited Setting- What Works?

Aims: Globally, viral agents, especially herpes simplex virus (HSV), have overtaken the bacterial causes of genital ulcers. Very few laboratories in India, perform culture techniques and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for diagnosis of genital ulcers. This study aimed to establish the utility of existing tests, which are cheaper and need less technical expertise, when compared to newer tests such as PCR.
 Study Design: This cross sectional study was carried out to determine the aetiology of genital ulcers, with emphasis on diagnosis of herpetic ulcers, using newer and more accurate methods of diagnosis and evaluating their performance by comparing against viral culture as gold standard test.
 Place and Duration of the Study: The study was carried out over a period of one year in the Apex Regional Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) Centre at Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi and the Department of Microbiology, AIIMS, New Delhi.
 Methodology: Fifty three patients with genital ulcers were included in the study. Specimens from ulcers were taken for various tests, including Giemsa stain, ELISA for HSV-1 & 2, PCR and Viral culture for HSV.
 Results: HSV was identified in 31 of 53 cases (58.5%), including 03 cases of HSV-1, and 28 cases of HSV-2. Sensitivity and specificity of PCR was 90.0% and 84.85%, respectively. Viral culture positivity was 37.7%.
 Conclusion: Genital herpes is associated with an increased risk of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) acquisition, and clinical manifestations are diverse; hence a presumptive diagnosis should be confirmed by reliable laboratory tests. Nucleic acid amplification tests (NAAT) are the most sensitive methods for direct detection of HSV. The extensive validation of these tests allows for their application in routine laboratory settings with consistency and greater diagnostic accuracy. When standardised and used, PCR is a highly reproducible, rapid and labour efficient method for HSV detection.

Physical, Thermal and Spectroscopic Characterization of the Biofield Energy Treated Zinc Chloride

Zinc is an important mineral for humans due to its role as an immune-booster, antioxidant and enzyme regulator. Zinc deficiency impairs growth and immunity. Zinc chloride is given as a dietary supplement in cases of zinc deficiency. The current study aimed to analyze the impact of the Trivedi Effect®- Energy of Consciousness Treatment on the physical, thermal, and spectral properties of zinc chloride. The methodology included dividing the zinc chloride sample into two equal parts; followed by keeping one part untreated and named as the Control sample. The other part was termed as the Biofield Energy Treated sample, which was remotely treated for ~3 minutes by Mr. Mahendra Kumar Trivedi, who was located in the USA, while the test samples were located in the research laboratory in India. Both the samples were analyzed using PXRD, PSA, DSC, UV-Vis, and FT-IR analytical techniques. The PXRD analysis revealed alterations in the relative peak intensities and crystallite sizes of the Treated sample in the range of 52.69% to 1232.65% and -33.36% to 92.28%, respectively, along with 13.75% significant increase in average crystallite size, compared with the Control sample. Also, the Biofield Energy Treated sample showed a significant increase in the particle sizes d10, d50, d90, and D(4,3) values by 88.08%, 12.87%, 2.25%, and 9.13%, respectively, along with a 31.49% decrease in the surface area as compared to the Control sample. The DSC analysis revealed slight alterations in the melting and decomposition temperature of the Biofield Energy Treated sample by 0.59% and -1.22%, respectively; however, the latent heat of melting and decomposition significantly decreased by -7.41% and -68.41%, respectively, compared to the Control sample. Moreover, the FT-IR studies also revealed some alterations in the spectrum of the Biofield Energy Treated sample, as there were some additional peaks in the region of 650-1000 cm-1 and the Zn-Cl stretching peak was shifted to lower frequency i.e., 511 cm-1, compared to the Control sample (557 cm-1). The Energy of Consciousness Treatment may help in producing a new polymorphic form of zinc chloride, which may have better flowability, and storage parameters along with altered thermal stability compared to the untreated sample. Thus, the Biofield Energy Treated zinc chloride could be helpful in designing better nutraceutical, dietary supplements and/or pharmaceutical formulations to combat against zinc deficiency.

Covid-19 Testing Strategy of India - Current Status and the Way Forward.

Covid-19 Testing Strategy of India - Current Status and the Way Forward.

Exploration of population ecological factors related to the spatial heterogeneity of dengue fever cases diagnosed through a national network of laboratories in India, 2017.

Background & objectives:Dengue virus (DENV) transmission is known to be influenced by the environmental conditions. During 2017, the Viral Research and Diagnostic Laboratories (VRDLs) tested 78,744 suspected dengue fever (DF) patients, of whom, 21,260 were laboratory confirmed. The objectives of the study were to evaluate the hypothesis that spatial heterogeneity existed for DF patients and to identify significant determinants of DENV transmission in various districts across the Indian States during 2017.Methods:Laboratory confirmed DF cases were analysed from 402 districts spread across the Indian States. The determinants for DF transmission included in the model were population density, proportion of population living in rural areas, proportion of forest cover area to the total geographical area, proportion of persons not able to read and write and who were aged greater than seven years; the climatic variables considered were minimum, maximum and average temperature, precipitation and cumulative rainfall. The spatial heterogeneity was assessed using spatial regression analysis.Results:DF cases showed strong spatial dependency, with Moran's I=4.44 (P<0.001). The robust measure for spatial lag (6.55; P=0.01) was found to be the best model fit for the data set. Minimum temperature and cumulative rainfall were significant predictors.Interpretation & conclusions:A significant increase in the number of dengue cases has occurred when the minimum temperature was 23.0-25.8°C and the cumulative rainfall 118.14-611.64 mm across the Indian districts. Further in-depth investigations incorporating more number of demographic, ecological and socio-economic factors would be needed for robust conclusions.

Strategic planning to augment the testing capacity for COVID-19 in India

Background & objectives:Nearly 5,500 tests for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) had been conducted on March 31, 2020 across the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)-approved public and private laboratories in India. Given the need to rapidly increase testing coverage, we undertook an exercise to explore and quantify interventions to increase the daily real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR)-based testing capacity over the next few months. The objective of this exercise was to prepare a potential plan to scale-up COVID-19 testing in India in the public sector.Methods:Potential increase in daily testing capacity of the existing public laboratories was calculated across the three base scenarios of shifts (9, 16 and 24 h). Additional testing capacity was added for each shift scenario based on interventions ranging from procurement of additional qRT-PCR machines, leveraging spare capacity on available qRT-PCR machines not drafted into COVID-19 testing, to in-laboratory process optimization efforts.Results:Moving to a 24 h working model in the existing approved laboratories can enhance the daily testing capacity to 40,464 tests/day. The capacity can be further bolstered by leveraging qRT-PCR and nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT)-based machines available with the Multidisciplinary Research Units (MRUs), National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) and National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP). Using combination/multiplex kits, and provision of automated RNA extraction platforms at all laboratories could also optimize run time and contribute to capacity increase by 1.5-2 times.Interpretation & conclusions:Adopting these interventions could help increase public sector's daily testing capacity to nearly 100,000-120,000 tests/day. It is important to note that utilization of the scaled-up testing capacity will require deployment of additional workforce, procurement of corresponding commodities for testing and scale-up of sample collection and transportation efforts.

Space time analysis of dengue fever diagnosed through a network of laboratories in India from 2014-2017.

The Department of Health Research and the Indian Council of Medical Research, Government of India, have established Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory Network (VRDLN) to strengthen the laboratory capacity in the country for providing timely diagnosis of disease outbreaks. Fifty-one VRDLs were functional as on December 2017 and had reported about dengue fever across Indian states. The objectives of the study were to detect space time clusters and purely temporal clusters of dengue using Kulldorff's SaTScan statistics using patient level information; and to identify regions at greater risk of developing the disease using Kriging technique aggregating at district level. A total of 211,432 patients from 51 VRDLs were investigated for IgM antibodies or NS1 antigen against dengue virus during the period from 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2017 and among them 60,096 (28.4%) were found to be positive. Kulldorff's space time analysis was used to identify significant clusters over space and time. Kriging technique was used to interpolate dengue data for areas not physically sampled using the relationship in the spatial arrangement of the data set. Maps obtained using both the methods were overlaid to identify the regions at greater risk of developing the disease. Kulldorff Space time Scan Statistics using the Bernoulli model with monthly precision revealed eight statistically significant clusters (P <0.001) for the time period, 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2017. Eight significant clusters identified were districts of Nagpur, Jhunjhunu, Gadag, Dakshin Kannada, Kancheepuram, Sivaganga, Ernakulam and Malda. The purely temporal clusters occurred during the last quarter of 2015 and 2016. The Kriging technique identified north eastern part of the country (Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur) and Gujarat. Dengue fever has spread in all directions in the country. Hence, it is need of the hour to perform an in-depth investigation.

Impact of Transformational Leadership on R&amp;D Leader Performance

In this study we provide a new conceptualization of R&amp;D leadership with a multilevel and integrative approach. Integrated leadership is being conceptualized based on extant literature. This study develops an inventory to access integrated leadership. It examines the impact of integrated leadership on R&amp;D performance and leader performance. It also examines the moderating effects of leaders’ motivation, knowledge sharing, R&amp;D climate and HRM practices between integrated leadership and R&amp;D performance and leader performance. Data were collected from selected 139 R&amp;D laboratories in India; from each laboratory one leader and three of his or her subordinate scientists working in coordination with the leader, were surveyed administering the questionnaire. The subordinate assessed the leadership and knowledge sharing, and the leader assessed all other variables. An instrument to access integrated leadership includes, cognitive, personal, and interpersonal factors.

Small Cell Carcinoma of the Cervix: A Retrospective Clinicopathologic Analysis Over a Period of 3 Years in a Referral Laboratory in India

Small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the cervix is rare, constituting less than 2% of all invasive cervical malignancies. It has a poor prognosis due to aggressive clinical course with high propensity for nodal and distant metastasis leading to mortality. Although it is known to be a chemosensitive tumor, till date no definite treatment modality has been entirely successful. Six cases diagnosed as small cell carcinoma of cervix over a period of 3 years were included in the study. Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue was subjected to hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining and microscopic examination. This was followed by a panel of immunohistochemical markers including synaptophysin, chromogranin, non-specific enolase (NSE), cytokeratin (CK), CD56 and Ki67 essential for diagnosis. The clinical and morphological profile in all the cases was then evaluated. Out of total 265 cervical malignancies reported, six cases (2.3%) were diagnosed as small cell carcinoma. The median age at the time of diagnosis was 49 years (range 28–67 years). All patients presented with irregular vaginal bleeding, with or without lower abdominal pain. Radiological scans revealed a mass in the cervix. Histopathological examination revealed a tumor arranged in diffuse sheets exhibiting high N/C ratio and stippled chromatin. Immunohistochemical markers employed were positive for CK, synaptophysin, chromogranin and NSE and negative for p40, CK5/6 and CD45 in all the cases. Small cell carcinoma of cervix is a rare malignancy. Because of the high rates of nodal involvement even with early-stage disease, multimodality treatment with radiotherapy and chemotherapy should be considered.

242P - Clinical validation of CanAssist breast in a Spanish cohort

BackgroundCanAssist-Breast (CAB) is a prognostic test for predicting risk of distant recurrence within five years in hormone receptor positive early stage breast cancer patients. It is unique in that the test uses immunohistochemistry coupled with a support vector machine learning based algorithm to predict risk score and category (High or Low). It has been developed and validated on a mix of Asian and Caucasian patients. The test has been clinically validated in over 1000 retrospective patient samples. In this study, we present for the first time data on the performance of CAB in a single center study from Spain (Vall D’Hebron Institute of Oncology, Barcelona). MethodsPost-surgical FFPE tumor blocks along with patient demographics and clinical follow up data up to a mínimum of five years were obtained from the hospital. CAB was performed on the tumor samples at the CAP and ISO 15189 accredited OncoStem reference laboratory in India. Distant Metastasis Free Survival (DMFS) and Hazard Ratio were used were computed using survival analysis. MedCalc software (Version 18.10.2) was used for all statistical analysis. The negative predictive value (NPV) was computed for establish the accuracy of prediction in the low risk group. ResultsSixty-two percent of this cohort had stage II disease. Sixty-nine percent and 61% had node negative and Grade 2 disease respectively. The median at onset was 61 years. The DMFS in the low risk category was 98% and 85% for the high risk (P=0.0032). The Hazard Ratio was 7.04 (95% CI: 1.93-25.73). The NPV was calculated to be 98%. To exclude any confounding effect of chemotherapy, survival analysis was done in the chemotherapy naïve sub-group. In the chemotherapy naïve sub-group, the DMFS for the low risk group was 100% and 85% for the high risk (P=0.02). These are results of the interim analysis of the study at half way mark and complete study data will be presented at the time ESMO meeting. ConclusionsCAB performs well in stratifying risk of recurrence in this Spanish cohort with the data matching performance shown earlier with the mix of Asian and Caucasian patients. In the absence of any inter-mediate risk category in CAB, it offers a cost effective alternative to existing prognostic tests providing definitive results to plan treatment of early stage breast cancer patients. Legal entity responsible for the studyManjiri M. Bakre. FundingHas not received any funding. DisclosureM. Bakre: Leadership role, Full / Part-time employment, Officer / Board of Directors, CEO and Founder: OncoStem Diagnostics Pvt Limted.

Cross-Country Transport and Isolation and Identification of Streptococcus pneumoniae By Use of Alternate Sources of Blood Supplemented Media among Laboratories in India

AbstractBackground: The isolation of S. pneumoniae (Sp) depends on specimen integrity / transport, media and expertise. The non-availability of sheep blood agar poses a challenge in identification of colonial morphology and identification in India. Methods: Laboratories processed swabs containing either pure Sp or Sp in mixed cultures with a second (confounding) bacterium shipped across the country in cold conditions. Duplicate set of swabs was shipped back to the central laboratory to assess the impact of shipping on culture viability. The identical swab was cultured on sheep, human blood and one additional agar plate used in the laboratory. Results: 46/60(77%) of cultures containing only Sp were correctly identified. In specimens where Sp was present in mixed culture, the proportion of isolates in which Sp was correctly identified varied, with most variability attributed to the particular confounding organism rather than the media. There was no discernible impact of temperature-controlled (4-6°C) transport on the isolation of Sp from culture swabs. Conclusions: The study clearly elucidates the ability of laboratories for isolation of S. pneumoniae on human blood agar in resource limited settings. The results highlight the difficulties inherent in correctly identifying pathogens in mixed cultures in needs improvement using standardized tests across the study centers. The study also reaffirms the ability to transport biological specimens over long geographical distances without loss.

Design, development and recent experiments of the CIMPLE-PSI device

The CIMPLE-PSI laboratory in India’s northeast corner has been engaged over the last decade in the development of advanced experimental systems for controlled plasma fusion-relevant plasma surface interaction (PSI) studies and material testing. The CIMPLE-PSI experimental device was commissioned recently, where a magnetized collimated helium plasma beam is produced under steady-state conditions inside a linear vacuum chamber, which can be made to interact with remotely placed material targets, under controlled experimental conditions. This paper reports on the design, development of the major sub-systems of this device and the performance of the integrated system. The peak helium ion flux and heat flux were measured as 1024 m−2 s−1 and 5.1 MW m−2, respectively; this confirms that extreme ITER divertor-like parameters are successfully reproduced by this simulation device. Steady-state operation of the electromagnet allowed prolonged operation of the plasma leading to a very high fluence of 0.3 × 1028 m−2, which may be enhanced further in the future. Tungsten samples were exposed in this device under helium plasma that had led to the formation of nanometer-sized tungsten fibre foam structures on the target. The technique of grazing incidence small angle x-ray scattering was successfully utilized to measure the average size of the helium bubbles remaining buried in the exposed sample and its variation with depth from the top of the surface.

Effect of carbapenem resistance on outcomes of bloodstream infection caused by Enterobacteriaceae in low-income and middle-income countries (PANORAMA): a multinational prospective cohort study

Low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) are under-represented in reports on the burden of antimicrobial resistance. We aimed to quantify the clinical effect of carbapenem resistance on mortality and length of hospital stay among inpatients in LMICs with a bloodstream infection due to Enterobacteriaceae. The PANORAMA study was a multinational prospective cohort study at tertiary hospitals in Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, Ghana, India, Lebanon, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Vietnam, recruiting consecutively diagnosed patients with carbapenem-susceptible Enterobacteriaceae (CSE) and carbapenem-resistant Entero-bacteriaceae (CRE) bloodstream infections. We excluded patients who had previously been enrolled in the study and those not treated with curative intent at the time of bloodstream infection onset. There were no age restrictions. Central laboratories in India and the UK did confirmatory testing and molecular characterisation, including strain typing. We applied proportional subdistribution hazard models with inverse probability weighting to estimate the effect of carbapenem resistance on probability of discharge alive and in-hospital death, and multistate modelling for excess length of stay in hospital. All patients were included in the analysis. Between Aug 1, 2014, and June 30, 2015, we recruited 297 patients from 16 sites in ten countries: 174 with CSE bloodstream infection and 123 with CRE bloodstream infection. Median age was 46 years (IQR 15-61). Crude mortality was 20% (35 of 174 patients) for patients with CSE bloodstream infection and 35% (43 of 123 patients) for patients with CRE bloodstream infection. Carbapenem resistance was associated with an increased length of hospital stay (3·7 days, 95% CI 0·3-6·9), increased probability of in-hospital mortality (adjusted subdistribution hazard ratio 1·75, 95% CI 1·04-2·94), and decreased probability of discharge alive (0·61, 0·45-0·83). Multilocus sequence typing showed various clades, with marginal overlap between strains in the CRE and CSE clades. Carbapenem resistance is associated with increased length of hospital stay and mortality in patients with bloodstream infections in LMICs. These data will inform global estimates of the burden of antimicrobial resistance and reinforce the need for better strategies to prevent, diagnose, and treat CRE infections in LMICs. bioMérieux.

Establishment of the First National Reference Standard for Insulin Lispro: Report of a collaborative study

The present study was aimed to establish the First National Reference Standard (NRS) for Insulin lispro to allow stakeholders including manufacturer's laboratories, drug testing laboratories, drug regulatory authorities and academic institutions to demonstrate accuracy of the test results and to enable comparison and validation of analytical methods. The candidate standard for Insulin lispro was evaluated in a collaborative study to assign the vial content in order to serve it as NRS to support the Indian Pharmacopoeia (IP) monograph. The candidate standard was calibrated against the Ph. Eur. Insulin lispro reference standard by each of six participant laboratories in India using HPLC assay method as per the requirements of IP monograph. The results indicate that the candidate standard has an average content of 5.79 mg per vial with purity of 99.87%. Based on the study results the candidate standard was judged suitable to serve as the first NRS for Insulin lispro.

Burdens of the Scientific Revolution: Euro/West-Centrism, Black Boxed Machines, and the (Post) Colonial Present.

How is it possible that past technoscientific research in India does not serve as a sluice for circulations of technoscience even within India? Why do technoscientific artifacts and knowledge continue to flow largely through the West? The answer to these and related questions, I argue, lies in the entanglement of technoscientific practices in India with Orientalist historiography of the origin of modern science. Such an Orientalist construction forms the basis of the diffusion model and constitutes technologies and societies as black boxes, which, as I show in this article, is strikingly on display in the historical accounts of NMR and MRI machines at even the best institutions and laboratories in India. I thus propose a deconstructive-empirical approach to unravel the enduring implications of Orientalist construction of the origin of modern science.

Significance of Accreditation of Forensic Science Laboratories in India

Significance of Accreditation of Forensic Science Laboratories in India

Importance-performance analysis (IPA) for testing – and calibration – laboratories in India

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to formulate the strategy for improving the laboratory practices to enhance customer satisfaction by analyzing the performance of critical factors of IS/ISO/IEC 17025 (2005) laboratory accreditation and the importance attached by the quality/technical managers in the accredited Indian testing/calibration laboratories.Design/methodology/approachThe perceptions of the critical factors of laboratory accreditation and the importance attached by the quality/technical managers in their organizations have been collected and analyzed to develop an importance-performance analysis (IPA) model to enhance the customer satisfaction.FindingsFindings report that the performance of the critical factors and the importance assigned to them are not the same. There exist gaps between the performance and importance which need to be measured and analyzed by the management to strive toward continual improvement to enhance the customer satisfaction through the accredited testing and calibration services.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is restricted to 54 responses out of 150 which were sent (i.e. about 36 percent response rate) to capture the perspectives of the quality/technical managers.Practical implicationsThis study would enable the accredited laboratories to analyze the gap in performance and the importance assigned to critical factors through the feedback from the quality/technical managers. By analyzing the strengths and weaknesses in the accredited testing/calibration laboratories, managerial decisions and strategic plans can be proposed to gain greater insights into benchmarking improvement of the laboratory quality management system with the existing resources to strive toward customer satisfaction.Originality/valueThis paper proposes IPA as a tool to assess the gap between the importance and performance of critical factors of accredited testing and calibration laboratories in India.