A comparison of the AAVLD and ISO 17025 standards: What must a veterinary diagnostic laboratory do to achieve ISO 17025?

Publically-administered veterinary diagnostic laboratories are accredited to an industry-developed quality standard, AAVLD, which is similar to the ISO 17025 international standard. Laboratories wanting to improve their client base of private industry partners must increasingly consider ISO 17025 accreditation to be successful, as it goes beyond the AAVLD standard by verifying the laboratory's technical competence to perform testing within its accreditation scope. The research considers the differences between the AAVLD and ISO 17025 standards and strategies used by other laboratories to successfully implement a quality program, and provides a gap analysis between the two standards. The plan considers project management and change management strategies, details roles and responsibilities for the project team, and provides a range of aids including commonly used quality assurance tools to successfully develop the ISO 17025 quality system. The project plan can be successfully implemented using the laboratory's existing AAVLD quality system as a starting point