KDCA to Pilot ‘End-to-End’ Assessment at 17 Regional Institutes of Health and Environment

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) will conduct a pilot assessment of public infectious disease testing capabilities at 17 regional Institutes of Health and Environment nationwide.

The KDCA said on the 31st that it will conduct an “Assessment of Laboratory Testing Capabilities at Public Infectious Disease Pathogen Confirmation Institutions” to improve the reliability of public infectious disease testing.

The regional Institutes of Health and Environment are local government testing institutions established to meet demand for infectious disease testing in their respective regions. They perform more than 1.4 million legally mandated infectious disease tests each year.

The KDCA has developed a laboratory standard operating system specialized for infectious disease testing and supported its adoption and operation by each institution. It began the pilot assessment in 2025.

This assessment will examine the entire testing process, from specimen receipt through testing and result reporting. It will comprehensively review personnel, facilities, equipment and testing procedures that affect test results.

The assessment consists of 94 items: 26 on laboratory operations, 31 on technical capabilities, 32 on infectious disease testing and five on laboratory emergency response.

Under the assessment process, each Institute of Health and Environment will conduct a self-assessment of its laboratory operations and submit the results. An assessment team consisting of at least two experts in areas including infectious disease testing will then visit the site to verify the findings.

The assessment will take place from late August through mid-October. The assessment criteria were developed to reflect the characteristics of infectious diseases and local governments while taking into account international standards from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

Through the pilot assessment, the KDCA plans to verify the suitability of the standard operating system and laboratory operating results and identify areas requiring improvement. Based on the assessment results, it will revise the criteria and methods and begin the full assessment in 2027.

“The starting point for responding to infectious diseases is rapid and accurate testing, and to achieve this, it is important to establish a systematic laboratory operating system capable of reliably carrying out the entire testing process,” KDCA Commissioner Lim Seung-kwan said.

Lim added, “This pilot assessment is part of the process of building an infectious disease testing system that the public can trust. The KDCA will continue to work closely with the Institutes of Health and Environment to strengthen regional infectious disease testing capabilities and do its utmost to protect the health and daily lives of the public.”