Behind the scenes of EQA - characteristics, capabilities, benefits and assets of external quality assessment (EQA)
Buchta, Christoph Marrington, Rachel De la Salle, Barbara Albarède, Stéphanie Badrick, Tony Bietenbeck, Andreas Bullock, David Cadamuro, Janne Delatour, Vincent Dusinovic, Enes
Buchta, Christoph
Marrington, Rachel
De la Salle, Barbara
Albarède, Stéphanie
Badrick, Tony
Bietenbeck, Andreas
Bullock, David
Cadamuro, Janne
Delatour, Vincent
Dusinovic, Enes
Affiliation
Austrian Association for Quality Assurance and Standardization of Medical and Diagnostic Tests; University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust; UK National External Quality Assessment Scheme for Haematology; Centre Toulousain pour le Contrôle de Qualité en Biologie Clinique; Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia Quality Assurance Program; MVZ Ärztliche Laboratorien München-Land GmbH; Paracelsus Medical University Salzburg; Laboratoire National de Métrologie et d'Essais; University Hospital Vienna; Reference Institute for Bioanalytics; The Norwegian Organization for Quality Improvement of Laboratory Examinations; Innsbruck University Hospital; ESEAP - Proficiency Testing Scheme for Clinical Laboratorie; National Measurement Laboratory; University of Surrey; SOD Sicurezza e Qualità AOU Careggi; NYP Columbia University; INSTAND e.V. Society for Promoting Quality Assurance in Medical Laboratories; Foundation for Quality Assessment in Laboratory Medicine; Radboud Medical Center; University of British Columbia
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Publication date
2025-01-06
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Abstract
This is the first in a series of five papers that detail the role and substantial impact that external quality assessment (EQA) and their providers' services play in ensuring in-vitro diagnostic (IVD) performance quality. The aim is to give readers and users of EQA services an insight into the processes in EQA, explain to them what happens before EQA samples are delivered and after examination results are submitted to the provider, how they are assessed, what benefits participants can expect, but also who are stakeholders other than participants and what significance do EQA data and assessment results have for them. This first paper presents the history of EQA, insights into legal, financing and ethical matters, information technology used in EQA, structure and lifecycle of EQA programs, frequency and intensity of challenges, and unique requirements of extra-examination and educational EQA programs.
Citation
Buchta C, Marrington R, De la Salle B, Albarède S, Badrick T, Bietenbeck A, Bullock D, Cadamuro J, Delatour V, Dusinovic E, Geilenkeuser WJ, Gidske G, Griesmacher A, Haliassos A, Holzhauser D, Huggett JF, Karathanos S, Pezzati P, Sandberg S, Sarkar A, Solsvik AE, Spannagl M, Thelen M, Restelli V, Perrone LA. Behind the scenes of EQA - characteristics, capabilities, benefits and assets of external quality assessment (EQA). Clin Chem Lab Med. 2025 Jan 6;63(5):844-858. doi: 10.1515/cclm-2024-1289.
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Article