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Announcement of the IAPQAP programme

I would like to announce that IAPMD will embark on providing QAP for anat path labs for the country. I am sure you already know that we have made a trial run  in 2015 and the results were presented at the AGM in September 2015 [you can view the summary here http://www.iapmd.net/iapmd-qap-programme.html] . For the trial run the DVDs were distributed to 21 labs .  At the last AGM we pledged to strengthen this program. 

In January this year, we run a questionnaire survey on your readiness to accept Malaysian QAP program [replacing RCPA of which all 35/35 anatomic pathology labs in Malaysia subscribe to]  organized by IAPMD and  majority of respondents  (87%) agreed and ready to subscribe to this program. On 10th of January we had a meeting with Jabatan Standard Malaysia (DSM)  seeking their advice on how to be a PT provider.  following that DSM has listed us as one of PT (proficiency Testing) providers for medical testing [http://www.jsm.gov.my/proficiency-testing#.WMi42_l942w]  

Further discussion  with DSM led to a 2 day seminar (13-14 March 2017)  on ISO 17043 jointly organized by IAPMD and DSM. We invited 2 speakers from Thailand, Professor Pongsak who is ex-IAP Thailand President and chair of IAPTD QAP program. The Thai Division  have been offering this service in Thailand. We also invited Dr Patravee, the director of Bureau of Quality Lab Standard from Thailand who is an expert on ISO 17403, the quality standard for PTP. This seminar was attended by council members of IAPMD, IAPMD QAP members and some heads of pathology labs in the country.

 At the end of the seminar, the conclusions  could be summarized as below
  1.  the PT provider for anat path is IAPMD and the name is IAPMD QAP
  2. IAPMD QAP will seek  ISO17043 accreditation within 2 years
  3. There will be 2 runs (cycle) per year
  4.  For the next run  10 QAP slides [ scanned and saved in  DVDs] will be sent  to all 35 labs for free [the cost is incurred by IAPMD]. the  DVDs will reach your lab around May 2017. Results disclosure a month later
  5. Since some labs have already subscribed to RCPA - the 2nd run in October2017 will be at a cost of 500 ringgit per that cycle 
  6. The subscription is 1000 ringgit per year from 2018. This is much cheaper than subscribing to RCPA QAP
  7. Majority who attended voted the Thailand style of issuing results
  8. Upon discussion, it was agreed that the disclosure of results that IAPMD QAP will  adopt  is a modified  Thailand style  and RCPA style. We will now call it IAPMD QAP style.  For each case, the target diagnosis and description for each is given and the  differential diagnoses will be listed. When the labs receive the results,  the lab has to analyse whether the diagnosis they made for the case belongs to "Discordant",  "Concordant" or "Minor Discordant. 
  9. The announcement on cycles and disclosure of results are on IAPMD website
  10. Slides for testing are submitted by 18 members who volunteered or nominated at the last AGM (in Penang) representing all states in Malaysia, public, private and universities. There were suggestion to also get the slides given at the exit exams of MPath. There will be slide bank and we also welcome members who are not among the 18  members to submit slides 
  11. The head of the program is Dr Chng Ewe Seng  and the comprising team is at the point finalsing. 
  12.  I hope all of you will participate in this program. This is run by our society and the success of the society is our responsibility

​Professor Dr. Nor Hayati Othman
President,
International Academy of Pathology
​Malaysian Division

Author

INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY OF PATHOLOGY MALAYSIAN DIVISION