Navy Medicine Research Facility in Cairo Receives Accreditation from the College of American Pathologists

By Darnell Gardner, Naval Medical Research Unit No. 3, Cairo

May 17, 2010 - CAIRO (NNS) -- The Navy Medicine research facility in Cairo is the first overseas Department of Defense (DoD) research laboratory to receive the College of American Pathologists Laboratory Accreditation.

The Naval Medical Research Unit No. 3 CAP-certified Diagnostics Laboratory will be an asset for U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), U.S. African Command and the U.S. Embassy community in Cairo.

"The goal of the CAP Laboratory Accreditation Program is to improve patient safety by advancing the quality of pathology and laboratory services through education, standard setting, and ensuring laboratories meet or exceed regulatory requirements. Our CAP-certified laboratory will serve as the premier training ground for future technicians of NAMRU-3 (Naval Medical Research Unit No. 3) and laboratorians throughout the eastern Mediterranean region", said Lt. Cmdr. Rockabrand, NAMRU-3 laboratory coordinator. "The expertise we have gained from the accrediting experience and ongoing quality processes will be demonstrated in the laboratory training and capacity building activities we perform in the entire NAMRU-3 AOR."

In August 2009, Cmdr. Denise L. Peet, currently stationed at Naval Hospital-Sigonella, joined the NAMRU-3 Diagnostics Laboratory team as the medical director. Peet directed the preparations for CAP accreditation. At NAMRU-3, Rockabrand and Lt. Brent L. House, assistant laboratory coordinator, guided the efforts locally.

"Many people don't appreciate the incredible amount of paperwork and documentation that is required to run an accredited diagnostics laboratory," House said. "During the final two months of preparation, we relied heavily on our Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) manager to ensure all the pieces of the puzzle were in place."

Regular proficiency testing is a critical part of NAMRU-3's CAP-accreditation that ensures the lab test results reported by NAMRU-3 are as reliable as those reported by CAP-accredited medical centers back in the US. Shipping patient samples to the U.S. from CENTCOM has been a challenge, said Rockabrand. He added, "Now we can do the testing on site and also offer more laboratory capability to those we serve. The results we get here have to match what is seen in the same specimens stateside, in an accredited hospital laboratory."

"This is a significant accomplishment for NAMRU-3," said Dr. Stephen Walz, director for Field Laboratory Operations at the Naval Medical Research Center, in Silver Spring, Md. "While the laboratory capabilities of NAMRU-3 have always been of the highest quality, with this CAP-accreditation, NAMRU-3 can now, for the first time, officially report laboratory results that can be used by physicians in theater to guide medical care."

According to the CAP website, the College of American Pathologists is a medical society serving more than 17,000 physician members and the laboratory community throughout the world. It is the world's largest association composed exclusively of pathologists and is widely considered the leader in laboratory quality assurance.

The CAP is an advocate for high-quality and cost-effective medical care. More than 6,000 laboratories are accredited by the CAP, and approximately 23,000 laboratories are enrolled in the College's proficiency testing program.

The mission of NAMRU-3 is to conduct infectious disease research, including the evaluation of vaccines, therapeutic agents, diagnostic assays and vector control measures, and to carry out public health activities, principally aimed toward improved disease surveillance and outbreak response assistance.

NAMRU-3 works closely with the Egyptian Ministry of Health, the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the World Health Organization (WHO), the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. NAMRU-3 has been a WHO Collaborating Center for HIV/AIDS since 1987.

In 1999, a Global Emerging Infections System program was established which expanded NAMRU-3 mandate to include public health activities and capacity building in host countries. This in turn led to the recognition of NAMRU-3 as a WHO Collaborating Center for Emerging and Re-Emerging Infectious Diseases in 2001.

NAMRU-3 also serves as a WHO reference laboratory for influenza and meningitis in the eastern Mediterranean region. Research partnerships have been established in Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Syria, Sudan, and the Republics of Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Kyrgistan, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan.

NAMRU-3 is playing an important role in the global response to the threat of avian influenza and pandemic influenza and is currently active in monitoring infectious disease trends among DoD personnel deployed to operational bases in Turkey, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Over the last 10 years, NAMRU-3 has conducted 69 disease outbreak investigations in 25 different countries.