Testing checks a product against its requirements. Quality assurance is broader: it is the set of processes, standards and reviews that make good outcomes likely before a single test runs.
In regulated institutions, that distinction matters. Regulators and auditors increasingly ask not only whether a system works, but how the organisation knows it works and will keep working: through controlled requirements, peer review, traceability from requirement to test, change control and release governance.
A mature QA practice embeds quality people from the requirements stage, defines entry and exit criteria for every phase, measures defect leakage, and feeds lessons back into the process. Frameworks such as CMMI and ISO-aligned quality management systems give that practice a structure that can be assessed.
SMH Global builds QA this way for its clients and for its own platforms, because defects caught early cost a fraction of production fixes.