College of American Pathologists
| Abbreviation | CAP |
|---|---|
| Type | NGO |
| Legal status | 501(c)(6) Nonprofit |
| Purpose | Physician Membership, Advocacy, Laboratory Improvement, and Laboratory Accreditation |
| Headquarters | Northfield, Illinois |
Membership | Approximately 18,000 |
President | R. Bruce Williams, MD, FCAP |
CEO | Stephen Myers |
Staff | Approximately 650 |
| Website | http://www.cap.org/ |
The College of American Pathologists (CAP) is a member-based physician organization founded in 1946 comprising approximately 18,000 board-certified pathologists. It serves patients, pathologists, and the public by fostering and advocating best practices in pathology and laboratory medicine.[1]
It is the world’s largest association composed exclusively of pathologists certified by the American Board of Pathology,[2] and is widely considered the leader in laboratory quality assurance. The CAP is an advocate for high-quality and cost-effective medical care.[3] The CAP does accreditation of laboratories under deemed authority by The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). It also offers an accreditation service to help laboratories earn accreditation under ISO 15189 Medical Laboratories. In November 2008, Piedmont Medical Laboratory of Winchester, Virginia became the first laboratory in the United States [4] to be officially accredited under ISO 15189.
The CAP publishes checklists containing requirements pertaining to the performance of laboratory tests. The All Common Checklist (COM) contains a core set of requirements that apply to all areas performing laboratory tests and procedures.[5] Some requirements exist in both the COM checklist and in a discipline-specific checklist, but with a different checklist note that has a more specific requirement. In these situations, the discipline-specific requirement takes precedence over the COM requirement.[5] The COM checklist also describes the requirements for analytical validation/verification of the method performance specifications (i.e. accuracy, precision, reportable range) that laboratories must perform for each test, method, or instrument system before use in patient testing.[5]
See also
- Pathology
- Anatomic pathology
- Clinical pathology
- Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine
- American Society for Clinical Pathology
References
- ^ "College Of American Pathologists (CAP) Releases 2016 Annual Report Detailing Progress With Improving Patient Care, Advocating For The Specialty, And Advancing Quality". Retrieved 2018-03-20.
- ^ American Board of Pathology
- ^ "CAP - Advocacy - NEWS - Oklahoma Spine".
- ^ first ISO-15189 accredited laboratory in the United States
- ^ a b c "All Common Checklist, CAP Accreditation Program" (PDF). www.cap.org. College of American Pathologists. 2015-07-28. Retrieved 30 January 2018.
External links
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