The standards working group met on October 16th 2009 at Birmingham Airport. Overall the first external audits have gone very well, with all labs having been audited, or acted as auditors. The audits all raised issues to be addressed, which the labs can work on before the next round. Some modifications to the standards documents were also proposed. Those labs not audited over the Summer will be visited before the next AGM. The external auditors found the process of visiting other labs very informative.

Participating laboratories now need to work on their internal audit mechanisms. At the October meeting different approaches and models were discussed.

We hope to be able to provide CMAS accreditation to gait labs after the next AGM. To be accredited labs will need to have completed their statement of purpose form, have had 2 successful external audits and have an internal audit mechanism in place. Interest in participating in the standards project is growing, with a number of labs wanting to join in for the next wave. Many of these are university based and their involvement will bring a new dimension to the process. If you represent, or know of a gait lab which might be interested in pursuing accreditation please let the standards committee know.

In Birmingham we held our first consensus/ education session examining calibration techniques. A range of different approaches was presented and discussed. The standards can now be updated to reflect the consensus achieved.

The next standards meeting and consensus event will be held at the AGM in Dundee, where we will be focusing on EMG techniques. The following date and venue have already been arranged and we will return to Birmingham airport on October 15th 2010.

Overall the standards work is progressing well and those participating are enjoying working together to improve our practice.

You can contact members of the standards committee directly, or send emails to standards@cmasuki.org, and they will be directed to the appropriate person.