Conference on Quality in Forensic Science

2013-11-05 - 2013-11-08

Dublin; Ireland

General

This conference should not be missed by anyone interested in quality issues, Quality Managers, or those who have responsibility for training in general forensic awareness.   QCLG representatives should also attend.  There are subsidies available for the participants who attend the sessions on Proficiency Testing and Validation of Methods.

 

The main part of the conference will be on Proficiency Testing, Validation and QCC issues.  There is also a session on the Basic Knowledge Exam for forensic scientists. The latter is essential for those organisations that want to ensure that their scientists have a good understanding of the basic forensic science concepts.

 

Design and Evaluation of Proficiency Tests

This aspect of the conference is organised by the project team for Monopoly Project  2009 M5.  Proficiency Tests and Collaborative Exercises are essential parts of the quality assurance process.  They are used to demonstrate that an organisation is able to achieve the correct results when it performs a particular analysis or examination.  Good PTs also help the organisation identify how it is performing relative to others and what the organisation needs to do for improvement.

 

The project group has developed new guidelines for the design and evaluation of Proficiency Tests (PTs) and Collaborative Exercises (CEs).  Although these guidelines are designed for the ENFSI Working Groups, they are useful for any laboratory who produces PTs or who wishes to sub-contracts PTs out to a commercial organisation.  Presentation topics include the experience of laboratories that have sub-contracted PTs to commercial laboratories, the requirements of the National Accreditation Body in relation to PTs, the experience of the commercial provider and how to use the PT results to improve your organisation.

 

 

Validation of Methods

Validation is the process to establish if a method is suitable for purpose. Forensic Science laboratories use a wide variety of methods that can be divided into two major categories. The first category includes methods that are mainly analytical such as instrumental methods that yield quantitative or qualitative results. The second category relates to those examinations that depend on the competence and expertise of the analyst and whose results may be expressed as opinions.

 

Validation is an essential part of your quality system and a requirement for ISO17025-accreditation.  Monopoly Project 2009 M4 was established to produce a general guideline (or guidelines) for the validation of analytical and expert opinion methods for most forensic science specialities.  The seminar programme will include this ENFSI guideline, some general presentations on validation  and  general templates for the validation process. In addition, workshops will present the results of a validation method for a quantitative, a qualitative and a human-based method.

 

 

Quality and Competency Liaison Group (QCLG)

The QCLG annual meeting provides useful information for anyone interested in forensic quality matters, including Quality Managers and the QCLG representative from the Expert working Groups.

 

Organised by the ENFSI Quality and Competency (QCC) committee, it will include presentations on its 2012 survey, European Forensic Science Area 2020 and CEN/TC 419, the ENFSI standard for Expert Opinion and ENFSI’s new communication platform.  There will also be reports on the proficiency tests or collaborative exercises carried by the Expert Working Groups in 2012, Business Process Improvement and the ENFSI Flying Mentors programme (EMFA).

 

 

Development of a Knowledge Exam

– What is this exam ?

– Who should do the exam?

– How should it be organized?

 

This half day seminar will be organised by the project team of the ENFSI Monopoly Project M2-2010 “The development of a knowledge examination for competence assessment”.

 

The aim of the project team is to present the Basic General Forensic Knowledge Exam, an online examination proposed for ENFSI laboratories to demonstrate the competence of their forensic practitioners in the field of general forensic science. This examination should help harmonization of knowledge in ENFSI institutes.

 

Participants

The seminar is aimed at the person(s) in your organization with responsibility for the continuous education and training of staff and/or quality. They will become the person of contact for the organisation of the local sessions of the online examination.

 

Seminar content

First, the project team will explain what is the Basic General Forensic Knowledge Examination. Then the team will present to the audience the necessary information so that the participants will be able to do the following:

– organize the local sessions of the online examination (process, organization, technicalities)

– inform the candidates in their laboratory about the examination, its organisation and its content.

– inform the management of their laboratory about the Basic General Forensic Knowledge Exam, its aim, its organisation and the profile of the candidates.

 

This session will also be an opportunity for the project team to get feedback and suggestions regarding this exam.

 

The participants will receive a set of didactic supports (documents and presentations)

that will help them to inform their organizations about the requirements for the Knowledge Exam.

 

For further questions please contact the project leader, Didier Meuwly (d.meuwly@nfi.minvenj.nl).

 

Conference Registration

Further information on costs, subsidies and registration will be available shortly.