Fine Meets With JCCLS, Government Officials in Tokyo
Global Standardization, Partnership Dominant Themes at JCCLS 20th Anniversary Scientific Conference

Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI, formerly NCCLS) Executive Vice President Glen Fine, MS, MBA, has returned from a successful visit with partner organization JCCLS (the Japanese Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards) in Tokyo.

Fine gave the plenary lecture at JCCLS’s celebratory 20th anniversary annual Scientific Conference, held at Tokyo Medical and Dental University, during which he spoke of the global standardization of laboratory medicine to the audience of representatives from Japanese industry and government organizations.

While in Tokyo, Fine also met with officials from Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare (MHLW), with whom he discussed the unique value and strength of voluntary consensus standards, and was hosted by the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) for a discussion about interorganizational partnerships. 

METI is currently providing financial support to a nationwide clinical laboratory standardization project undertaken by JCCLS, and Fine says his main purpose in the METI meeting was to thank the organization for its support of the CLSI partner.

“By supporting JCCLS, they support CLSI,” Fine says.  “Aside from JCCLS, METI is a strong supporter and partner of (the USA’s) National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which itself is a CLSI member organization.  So it’s a truly valuable alignment that METI has helped to foster—we’re all helping each other.”

Formed in 1985, JCCLS is a Japanese standards-development organization with representation from the clinical laboratory testing professions, professional societies, industry, and government agencies—according to the organization’s official description, “following in the footsteps” of CLSI. 

JCCLS has also served as Secretariat of the Japan Branch of International Organization for Standardization Technical Committee 212 (ISO/TC 212), since the committee was formed in 1995.

“While JCCLS may be based upon CLSI’s organizational model,” Fine says, “in the two decades since its formation, it has very much stood on its own as a premier standards-development organization.  The expertise and involvement of JCCLS make it an invaluable partner of CLSI.”

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