The European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM) Research (EARL) has launched a supplier audit program, along with three new PET/CT accreditations.
The new shared audit and supplier assessment initiative (SASAI) is available to the global nuclear medicine community. The goal is to have a team of independent auditors performing audits of starting material suppliers and share them with interested parties. SASAI has been developed by a group of experts under the lead of the radiopharmacy and drug development committees of the EANM. Costs will be covered with a service fee. Visit here for more details.
In other news, the association has added F-18 standards as well as zirconium-89 and gallium-68 accreditations to the EARL PET/CT accreditation programs. The accreditations aim to harmonize the performance of PET/CT scanners for quantification allowing comparability of the data across different makes and models of equipment.
The EARL PET/CT accreditation is granted to facilities that fulfill the requirements indicated in the EANM imaging guideline and is for a specific scanner. All accredited PET/CT institutions are included in the EARL Center of Excellence network. Since accreditation is granted for a specific scanner, the centers are allowed to only use the EARL approved scanner(s) within a trial requiring the EARL PET/CT accreditation, according to EANM. The plan is to add SPECT/CT accreditation in the future.
