The process for delivering WOLFAP includes several key steps;

1. Development of an agreed draft outline for the requirements of WOLFAP lung function laboratory accreditation.
2. Preparing a self-assessment questionnaire to be sent to all lung function organisations around the world to assess their compliance with WOLFAP criteria.
3. Review the results of the questionnaire to ensure that the WOLFAP standards are appropriate and achievable in all/most countries.
4. Publish the WOLFAP Accreditation document on websites (e.g. SpirXpert) and engage all interested organisations (AARC, ANZSRS, APSR, ARTP, TSANZ, ERS, ATS, etc.) to adopt the standards and achieve world lung function accreditation standards.

The first phase of the process involves the development of this current document. This document is using ideas from several professional bodies but predominantly uses the TSANZ accreditation document. However, applying the TSANZ standard to all countries of the world may require some  compromise in many of the TSANZ standards because the level of sophistication of healthcare in many countries is not comparable to Australia and New Zealand.

The second phase of the process will be to communicate and disperse the draft WOLFAP document and process to medical and technical organisations around the world and to obtain “buy in” from large respiratory professional bodies (ATS, ERS, APSR, AARC, NBRC, etc.) as well as national professional bodies and organisations too.  This will in turn require the expanding of the concept and principle of WOLFAP to drug companies, clinical trials companies and leading decision makers in this area.

The third phase will involve using a detailed questionnaire which has been designed to assess the laboratory's readiness for accreditation. Self Assessment is a key feature of this phase of the process. Ability to satisfactorily respond to the questionnaire, guided by the Standards for Accreditation detailed below, should indicate to the applicant service its likely ability to comply with the requirements for accreditation.

The review of the accreditation document in the light of the “reality on the ground”, from the responses to the questionnaires, will help shape the relevance and usefulness of this accreditation initiative before its final publication and we would hope foster adoption of this global minimum standard.

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