DPC Holds First Quality Conference

Through the years, we in the medical diagnostics industry have become familiar with the stringent requirements of quality expected of us by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The partnership between industry and the FDA has contributed to dramatic improvement in health care and the public safety with respect to drugs, diagnostics and food. The same regulations have been adopted by the medical products community worldwide and have led us at DPC, a truly worldwide health care company, to harmonize our quality policy throughout our affiliated companies. We never rest from our effort to assure a consistent level of quality in our products and services for our customers around the globe.

To address and keep abreast of global developments and maintain a comprehensive international program, we held our first Corporate Quality Conference in September 1997 in Morristown, NJ near the DPC Cirrus facility. This inaugural meeting welcomed the Quality Managers from 11 countries, including Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, the UK, and the US (both New Jersey and Los Angeles)-virtually all of DPC's affiliates. The purpose of the conference was to create and foster a forum within which the corporate quality policies, strategies and goals would become known and understood, and better communicate within our corporation the content and requirements of the key regulations and standards which affect DPC, such as the cGMP, EN29000, and ISO 9000. In addition, the meeting established a forum for all affiliates to share the structure and content of their respective quality systems, especially those of the large design and manufacturing sites in Los Angeles, New Jersey, Wales and Germany; and to discuss the challenges and successes each company experienced in growing its Quality System.

The agenda was a full one, including presentations and discussions on the key regulations and standards which affect DPC, management responsibility for the quality system, how to manage an FDA or ISO inspection, quality auditing techniques, and an update on global environmental regulations. Participants also discussed handling product recalls and customer complaints effectively. (Although customer complaints are infrequent and a product recall even more so, it is important from a customer-service, as well as statutory, viewpoint to have a program in place for responding appropriately in such situations.) A tour of the DPC Cirrus facility capped off the conference. After three days, the group summarized the proceedings and planned for next year's conference, having agreed that these meetings will be an integral part of DPC's total plan for international customer satisfaction.