ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB) Accredits University of Mississippi Medical Center Biobank under New Accreditation Program

The ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB) has accredited the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) Biobank to perform biobanking activities: collecting, tagging processing, preserving, storing, distributing, and managing biosamples with related clinical data for investigational purposes. UMMC Biobank is one of the first facilities to achieve accreditation under ANAB’s new ISO 20387 program for biobanking, supporting their efforts to facilitate in-depth translational research while assuring donor anonymity and regulatory safeguards.

Biobanked material—large collections of human biological samples linked to relevant personal and health information—is crucial for effective scientific research and developments across multiple disciplines. In order to help assure the quality and performance of biobank facilities and promote confidence in biobanking institutions and procedures, ANAB’s biobanking accreditation program offers accreditation under ISO 20387, General requirements for biobanking. This international standard establishes accreditation requirements for biological material and data quality that demonstrate an organization’s competence in proper handling, traceability, and long-term preservation of samples.

Accredited organizations must also meet the requirements of ISO 9001, Quality management systems – Requirements, and additional ANAB requirements related to quality control plans and risk evaluations, reporting of unsatisfactory results, performing and reporting corrective actions if ISO 20387 non-conformities are discovered, and proving metrological traceability (MT) to the International System of Units (SI).

“Since its inception, ANAB has been heavily involved in biological sciences and the associated accreditation programs. We are very excited to advance these initiatives to include new and innovative disciplines like biobanking, which facilitates the delivery of precision healthcare,” said Roger Muse, ANAB VP, business development.

“Achieving and maintaining accreditation under ANAB’s ISO 20387 program is a clear indicator of the UMMC Biobank’s capabilities and reliability to its stakeholders, sample donors, and investigators,” said Dr. Gouri J. Mahajan, director of the UMMC Biobank. “This achievement will help UMMC facilitate advanced research, with a lasting impact on health care delivery.”

Questions may be directed to Roger Muse, ANAB’s Vice President, Business Development at 414-501-5455.

About ANAB

The ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB), a wholly owned subsidiary of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), is the largest multi-disciplinary ISO/IEC 17011 accreditation body in North America, with comprehensive signatory status across the multilateral recognition arrangements of the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) and International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC). The ANAB accreditation portfolio includes management systems certification bodies, calibration and testing labs, product certification bodies, personnel credentialing organizations, forensic test and calibration service providers, inspection bodies, police crime units, greenhouse gas validation and verification bodies, reference material producers, and proficiency test providers. For more information, visit www.anab.org.

About ANSI

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a private non-profit organization whose mission is to enhance both the global competitiveness of U.S. business and the U.S. quality of life by promoting and facilitating voluntary consensus standards and conformity assessment systems, and safeguarding their integrity. Its membership is comprised of businesses, professional societies and trade associations, standards developers, government agencies, and consumer and labor organizations.

The Institute represents and serves the diverse interests of more than 270,000 companies and organizations and 30 million professionals worldwide. ANSI is the official U.S. representative to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and, via the U.S. National Committee, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). For more information, visit www.ansi.org.