Phoenix Children’s Biospecimen Sciences program received accreditation from the College of American Pathologists, an organization that recognizes excellence in pathology and laboratory medicine. Phoenix Children’s is one of only three children’s hospitals nationwide with a CAP-accredited biorepository.
The CAP accreditation recognizes the biorepository’s processes and policies for handling and banking biospecimens, ensuring high standards of quality, accuracy and procedural consistency.
Phoenix Children’s Biospecimen Sciences staff works with surgeons, pathologists and researchers to gather and store high-quality, well-characterized pediatric biospecimens without compromising diagnostic processing workflow.
“CAP accreditation is a vital part of our effort to advance pediatric medicine through groundbreaking research,” said Nazneen Aziz, Ph.D., senior vice president of research and chief research officer at Phoenix Children’s. “In addition to affirming the integrity and storage conditions of our specimens, the accreditation opens doors for collaborations with other researchers who know they can trust the results obtained from our specimens.”
The CAP Biorepository Accreditation involves onsite inspection, desk review, and optional education modules and gap assessment. With CAP accreditation, Phoenix Children’s joins the likes of Johns Hopkins Hospital and H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center biorepositories.
“The promise and potential of our work at the biorepository drive us to maintain and even exceed the highest benchmarks of biobanking and processing,” said Dr. David F. Carpentieri, director of Phoenix Children’s Biospecimen Sciences.
Stringent quality control in the processing, handling and storage of biospecimens allows researchers to access and analyze pediatric samples for future research, integral to the goal of treating and eradicating acquired and inherited diseases.
“The ability to work with properly collected, annotated and stored biospecimens is essential for clinical research and will lead to groundbreaking new medical discoveries for pediatrics,” Aziz said.
Phoenix Children’s Biospecimen Sciences program is part of Phoenix Children’s Research Institute, a clinical and translational research enterprise that provides patients the opportunity to participate in the development of leading-edge therapies, novel diagnostics, devices and clinical management options.
