ABSTRACT
Developing a quality program is an integral part of a DNA laboratory operation. A quality program illustrates a laboratory’s commitment to developing quality products, maintaining the integrity of the samples processed, and ensuring credibility of its scientific contributions and achievements in the global forensic community. Quality assurance and quality control standards guide the laboratory quality program. Quality control is the testing a laboratory performs to ensure procedures and methods are monitored, and to verify that products meet specified standards that provide confidence in results. Quality assurance is the process a laboratory employs to assess the quality of products or services by review of work, problem identification, corrective action to remedy deviations, and evaluation of remediation. A quality program gives a laboratory a framework for continuous improvement of its system, services, and testing.
