Two Accreditation Options for Biorepositories.

Abstract

Context.—: Biomedical research relies on available biomaterials and associated data, and the quality of this starting material can have a significant impact on the quality of the experimental results. In the 2000s, best-practice documents and guidelines for biorepositories were published, followed in the 2010s by standards documents used to support accreditation. The College of American Pathologists Biorepository Accreditation Program and the International Standards Organization's standard 20387 were launched in 2012 and 2018, respectively.

Objective.—: To identify quantitative and qualitative differences between the two aforementioned biorepository accreditation standards for use by the larger biomedical research community; the results will empower biorepositories to select an accreditation program that best fits their goals.

Design.—: Individual requirements of both accreditation standards were identified and a bidirectional crosswalk was performed to identify gaps. Requirements were assigned to one of several standardized categories to enable comparison of the relative emphasis of different categories between the standards.

Results.—: Quantitatively, the College of American Pathologists program is comprehensive and stands alone, with 523 requirements, whereas the International Standards Organization program contains 167 requirements and is comprehensive through its incorporation and reference to numerous related standards documents. Qualitatively, both programs rely heavily on the implementation of an overarching quality management system and both programs can accommodate different types of biobanks (eg, human and animal).

Conclusions.—: The standards differ in number of requirements, distribution of requirements across categories, and amount of reliance on separate standard documents. This information may aid in selection of an appropriate accreditation standard.