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Review
. 2016 Sep;6(3):344-348.
doi: 10.23907/2016.036. Epub 2016 Sep 1.

Progress in the Accreditation of Anthropology Laboratories

Michal L Pierce  1 , Jason M Wiersema  2 , Christian M Crowder  2
Affiliations
Review

Progress in the Accreditation of Anthropology Laboratories

Michal L Pierce et al. Acad Forensic Pathol. 2016 Sep.

Abstract

While crime laboratories are commonly accredited under programs utilizing international standards, options for forensic anthropologists to do the same were limited, until recently. The American National Standards Institute-American Society for Quality (ANSI-ASQ) National Accreditation Board (ANAB) and the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA) both offer accreditation programs for forensic anthropology services using either the International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) 17025 or ISO/IEC 17020 standard. The significant efforts made to specifically include forensic anthropology, and also forensic pathology, in these national programs demonstrate the importance for all practitioners in the field of forensic science to develop and maintain quality assurance programs consistent with international standards. Among the requirements for quality assurance is validation of methods, a practice that was previously identified as needing improvement within the forensic anthropology community.

Keywords: Accreditation; Forensic anthropology; Forensic pathology; International organization for standardization standards; Method validation.

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Conflict of interest statement

DISCLOSURES & DECLARATION OF CONFLICTS OF INTEREST The authors, reviewers, editors, and publication staff do not report any relevant conflicts of interest

References

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