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Vision

EMQN believes that every patient should have the most accurate genomic test result possible. After all, lives may depend on a correct diagnosis to identify appropriate treatment or prognosis. Families also rely on test results to understand the risks to themselves and their loved ones.

Mission

EMQN provides quality assurance tools and knowledge to the human genomic testing community through External Quality Assessment (EQA) schemes. This guarantees the best possible molecular diagnostic procedure, analytical performance, and clinical interpretation.

Furthermore, EMQN’s highly qualified peer group of assessors take pride in their thought leadership position and are committed to regularly publishing best practice guidelines and other information for the molecular diagnostics field.

Successful pilot of Huntington disease EQA scheme
EMQN was established in Manchester, UK
Supported by a European commission grant
Supported by subscriptions from EQA scheme participants. Scope broadened to include:
Became independent community-interest company – EMQN CIC

1997

1998

1999 - 2002

  • Molecular genetics
  • Molecular pathology
  • Pharmacogenetics
  • Virology
  • Non-invasive prenatal testing
  • Postnatal testing
  • Technique-specific EQA schemes for molecular testing, e.g., Next Generation DNA sequencing (NGS)

2002 - 2021

2021

1997

Successful pilot of Huntington disease EQA scheme

1998

EMQN was established in Manchester, UK

1999 - 2002

Supported by a European commission grant

2002 - 2021

Supported by subscriptions from EQA scheme participants. Scope broadened to include:

  • Molecular genetics
  • Molecular pathology
  • Pharmacogenetics
  • Virology
  • Non-invasive prenatal testing
  • Postnatal testing
  • Technique-specific EQA schemes for molecular testing, e.g., Next Generation DNA sequencing (NGS)

2021

Became independent community-interest company – EMQN CIC

Organisation

Collaborators

EMQN collaborates with many organisations to ensure we provide the best possible service, including:

Contact us to become a collaborator.

Pharmaceutical partners

Several of our schemes are fully or partly sponsored by some of our pharma partners, including:

Careers

Our team is growing!

Are you looking for the next step in your career that will give you a chance to really make a difference to patient outcomes through ensuring best practice in diagnostic testing?

Visit our careers page to see the available opportunities in Manchester.

News

Events

Sustainability Statement

EMQN is dedicated to following all relevant UN sustainability goals.

EMQN is dedicated to providing the most accurate diagnostic test result possible for patients, by offering quality assurance tools and knowledge to the human molecular pathology and genetics testing community. Of the 1300 laboratories that we assessed last year, 98% fully complied with our stringent guidelines. We assisted the remaining 2% to improve their testing and reporting services to provide the best possible service to their patients.

EMQN is committed to providing a service that ensures inclusive and equitable quality education and learning opportunities for the human molecular pathology and genetics testing community. Our EQAs provide individual bespoke feedback to every customer, along with detailed and comprehensive summaries of each scheme. In 2023, we published three new best practice guidelines and have organised eight educational webinars to support this goal.

EMQN aims to create a fair, inclusive and gender-equitable workplace, through equal opportunities hiring and regular reviews. 65% of our staff are female, including 60% in management positions, 50% of our Company Board and 53% of our Scientific and Strategic Advisory Board.

EMQN is committed to providing quality healthcare for all, providing special discounted rates to countries in emerging and developing economies. In 2023, we supported 32 organisations in 17 different countries to access our services.

EMQN makes every effort to reduce its environmental impact and improve its processes by reducing the number of EQA distributions and combining orders in single distributions (to reduce packaging), using smart shipping solutions (reducing costs), switching to using predominantly electronic documentation and record keeping (reducing the use of paper), increasing use of smarter technologies such as video conferencing and selecting venues for face to face meetings with good public transport links (reducing unnecessary travel). These measures help to improve operational performance and production, and reduce consumption and unnecessarily harmful environmental effects.

Accreditation and Quality

As part of our ongoing commitment to providing a high-quality service to all our members, we are accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) to the international standard for EQA scheme providers (ISO17043). This accreditation covers all of our EQA schemes unless explicitly stated in our scheme catalogue).

Please follow these links to view our UKAS certificate and the scope as described in our UKAS schedule of accreditation.

EMQN is committed to providing a high quality and timely service which takes the needs and requirements of our members into account. You can download our Quality Policy here.