• American Association of Clinical Chemistry (AACC)
  AACC is an international scientific/medical society of clinical laboratory professionals, physicians, research scientists and other laboratory science-related disciplines.
    
• American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG)
  ACMG provides education, resources and a voice for the medical genetics profession. ACMG promotes the development and implementation of methods to diagnose, treat and prevent genetic disease to make genetic services available to and improve the health of the public. Several policy, recommendation, and consensus statements have been drafted by the ACMG addressing a variety of laboratory issues.
   
• Association of Molecular Pathology (AMP)
  AMP represents and unifies practitioners of molecular pathology. It promotes clinical practice, basic research, and education.
   
• Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL)
  APHL plans, coordinates and integrates the global expertise of its members to help promote improvement in public health laboratory practice worldwide. APHL continues to address a number of laboratory issues surrounding newborn screening and genetics.
   
• American Type Culture Collection (ATCC)
  ATCC is a global nonprofit bio-resource center that provides biological products, technical services, and educational programs to private industry, government, and academic organizations around the world. This resource acquires, authenticates, preserves, develops, and distributes biological materials, information, technology, intellectual property, and standards for the advancement, validation, and application of scientific knowledge.
   
• College of American Pathology (CAP)
  CAP is a medical society serving more than 15,000 physician members and the laboratory community throughout the world. It is the world's largest association composed exclusively of pathologists and is widely considered the leader in providing laboratory quality improvement programs including those that specifically target laboratories offering genetic testing.
    
• Coriell Institute for Medical Research
  The Coriell Cell Repositories (non-profit) are supported by federal and other funds to provide essential research reagents to the scientific community by establishing, maintaining, and distributing cell cultures and DNA derived from cell cultures.
   
• European Collection of Cell Cultures (ECCC)
  ECCC is an international cell repository whose holding include cell lines and DNA. Within this collection, more than 750 genetic disorders are represented. The repository serves industry and the academic research community. The collection is supported from a combination of sources, including the UK Research Councils (MRC, BBSRC, NERC), the Commission of the European Communities and the World Health Organization, together with revenue from sales and the provision of technical services.
   
• European Directory of DNA Diagnostic Laboratories (EDDNAL)
  EDDNAL is a non-profit registry that provides a directory of European laboratories and clinics providing diagnostic services for heritable syndromes and disorders. Statistics are available for clinicians, healthcare policymakers, and other qualified individuals.
   
• European Molecular Quality Network (EMQN) 
  The EMQN seeks to raise and maintain the standards of diagnostic clinical molecular genetics testing in the European Union through the provision of standard external quality assessment schemes and development of best practice protocols.
   
• GeneClinics
  GeneClinics is a clinical information resource relating genetic testing to the diagnosis, management and genetic counseling of individuals and families with specific inherited disorders. Disease-specific information is provided along with useful links to educational material and policy statements from professional organizations.
   
• GeneTests
  GeneTests is a genetic testing resource that includes a medical genetics laboratory directory (inclusion is voluntary), a genetics clinic directory (primarily US laboratories), an introduction to genetic counseling and testing concepts, and a PowerPoint slideshow presentation for genetics professionals.
    
• National Newborn Screening and Genetics Resource Committee (NNSGRC)
  The National Newborn Screening and Genetics Resource Center (NNSGRC) is a cooperative agreement between the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), Genetic Services Branch and the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA), Department of Pediatrics. It provides information and resources in the area of newborn screening and genetics to benefit health professionals, the public health community, consumers and government officials.
    
• Newborn Screening Quality Assurance Program, CDC (NSQAP)
  The Clinical Biochemistry Branch, Division of Laboratory Sciences, operates the Newborn Screening Quality Assurance Program (NSQAP). NSQAP is a voluntary, non-regulatory program to help state health departments and their laboratories maintain and enhance the quality of test results. The program is operated in partnership with the Association of Public Health Laboratories.
   
• NCCLS
  NCCLS is a globally recognized, voluntary consensus standards-developing organization that enhances the value of medical testing within the healthcare community through the development and dissemination of standards, guidelines, and best practices. Several guidelines are relevant to the provision of genetic testing services.
   
• Office of Genetics and Disease Prevention, CDC (OGDP)
  The mission of the Office of Genetics and Disease Prevention is to integrate advances in human genetics into public health research, policy, and programs. OGDP also sponsors HuGENet, a global collaboration of individuals and organizations who develop and communicate epidemiological information on the human genome.
   
• UCSDW3BG: World-Wide Web Biochemical Genetics Test List
  This resource provides a searchable database of laboratories (inclusion is voluntary) offering a variety of biochemical genetic tests.
  

• Office of Workforce Policy and Planning (OWPP)

The Office of Workforce Policy and Planning was created as the organizational locus for external workforce development activities within CDC/ATSDR (a recommendation of the CDC/ATSDR Strategic Plan for Public Health Workforce Development, 2000). The Office seeks to improve the ability of public health workers, nation-wide, to perform the essential services of public health and to prepare the workforce to respond to current and emerging health threats.
 

• The World of Genetic Societies

This site includes the major organizations involved in graduate training in human genetics and provides career information, a guide to graduate and postgraduate training and medical school curricula.

• American Board of Pathology/American Board of Medical Genetics - Subspecialty certification in molecular genetic pathology

The ABP offers primary certification through three routes: combined anatomic pathology and clinical pathology, anatomic pathology only, and clinical pathology only. Subspecialty certificates are offered.

• American Association of Clinical Chemistry Certification in Molecular Diagnostics

This certification examination in molecular diagnostics is designed to test knowledge of principles, concepts, methodologies, and usage of molecular biology techniques as applied to the clinical laboratory.

• The Association of Genetic Technologists, Inc.

Information about education programs, certification programs and requirements, continuing education opportunities, protocol manuals, training guides, certification study guides, and professional publications.

• The National Credentialing Agency

The National Credentialing Agency for Laboratory Personnel, Inc. (NCA) conducts certification of medical laboratory personnel and other credential-related activities.

• List of Accredited Cytogenetic Technologist Training Programs

State Regulations

• The State of New York State, through its Clinical Laboratory Evaluation Program (CLEP), regulates and monitors the quality of clinical laboratory testing, including genetic testing, conducted both by in-state laboratories and out-of-state facilities that accept clinical specimens obtained in New York State.

Voluntary Laboratory Standards for Genetic Testing 

• The American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG) developed the Standards and Guidelines for Clinical Genetics Laboratories as an educational resource to assist laboratories in providing accurate and reliable genetic testing consistent with currently available technology and procedures in the areas of clinical cytogenetics, biochemical genetics, molecular genetics, and prenatal screening.
   
• The College of American Pathologists (CAP) developed the Laboratory Improvement/Laboratory Accreditation Checklists to serve as a tool for demonstrating and improving quality of laboratory testing in a broad range of laboratory specialties, including cytogenetics and areas related to genetics
   
• NCCLS developed the MM1-A Guidelines for molecular methods to provide guidance for the use of molecular biologic techniques for clinical detection of heritable mutations associated with genetic disease. 

Recommendations for Genetic Testing in US

• Secretary’s Advisory Committee for Genetic Testing - Enhancing the Oversight of Genetic Tests: Recommendations of the SACGT
   
• General Recommendations for Quality Assurance Programs for Laboratory Molecular Genetic Tests -  recommendations for addressing gaps in molecular genetic quality assurance and proficiency testing/performance evaluation programs made to the CDC based on expert panel deliberation and analysis of detailed technical information.
  
• CDC Genetics Laboratory Forum -  formed as a mechanism to obtain input from laboratory professionals regarding genetic testing. Participant discussion and recommendations are summarized in the following meeting minutes:
   
  • 02/23/2000 Meeting Summary - HTML, PDF
  • 06/02/2000 Meeting Summary - HTML, PDF
     
  • NIH-DOE Task Force Report - Genetic Testing and Screening in the Age of Genomic Medicine. The New York State task Force on Life and the Law. November 2000.