M3 USA Wins First Access Panel ISO

CASRO's Institute for Research Quality (CIRQ) has awarded its first certification for the ISO 26362:2009 panel quality standard, to online physician community specialist M3 USA.

CASRO (the Council of American Survey Research Organizations) formed CIRQ last year, as an independently operated subsidiary providing assessment and certification services to North American research firms looking to obtain ISO standards.

The ISO 26362 standard defines and evaluates the service requirements for organizations and professionals who own and/or use access panels for market, opinion and social research. The standard covers all types of access panels; whether recruited and used online (via the Internet), or offline (via telephone, or face-to-face interaction).

M3 USA's certification to ISO 26362 covers the operation and management of the MDLinx online panel of US physicians and healthcare professionals, which is used for quant market research projects such as testing client-provided surveys and deploying them online.

'Finally there is an indisputable, international standard in quality research that any client or agency can recognize the world over,' stated Craig Overpeck, COO of Global Research for M3. 'Every serious panel company must consider implementing the ISO:26362 standard.'

Web sites: www.cirq.org , www.m3.com and www.mdlinx.com .