Behind the scenes of EQA – characteristics, capabilities, benefits and assets of external quality assessment (EQA): Part III – EQA samples

Christoph Buchta¹, Rachel Marrington², Barbara De la Salle³, Stéphanie Albarède⁴, Xavier Albe⁵, Tony Badrick⁶, Heidi Berghäll⁷, David Bullock⁸, Christa M Cobbaert^{9

10}, Wim Coucke¹¹, Vincent Delatour¹², Wolf-Jochen Geilenkeuser¹³, Andrea Griesmacher^{1

14}, Gitte M Henriksen¹⁵, Jim F Huggett^{16

17}, István Juhos¹⁸, Martin Kammel^{19

20}, Peter B Luppa^{19

21}, Piet Meijer²², Jonna Pelanti⁷, Paola Pezzati²³, Sverre Sandberg²⁴, Michael Spannagl¹⁹, Marc Thelen^{25

26}, Annette Thomas²⁷, Heinz Zeichhardt^{19

28}, Veronica Restelli²⁹, Lucy A Perrone²⁹

Affiliations

¹ Austrian Association for Quality Assurance and Standardization of Medical and Diagnostic Tests (ÖQUASTA), Vienna, Austria.
² Birmingham Quality (UK NEQAS), Part of University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham, UK.
³ UK National External Quality Assessment Scheme (UK NEQAS) for Haematology, Watford, UK.
⁴ Centre Toulousain pour le Contrôle de qualité en Biologie clinique (CTCB), Toulouse, France.
⁵ Co-Chair of the EQALM Virtual Microscopy Working Group; EQALM Virtual Microscopy Working Group Steering Committee Member, Geneva, Switzerland.
⁶ Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia Quality Assurance Program, Sydney, Australia.
⁷ Labquality, Helsinki, Finland.
⁸ Former Director, Birmingham Quality, Former President, UK NEQAS, Birmingham, UK.
⁹ Director of the Department of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands.
¹⁰ Chair of the IFCC Scientific Division EC and Chair of the EFLM Task Force on European Regulatory Affairs, Milano, Italy.
¹¹ Sciensano, Brussels, Belgium.
¹² Laboratoire National de Métrologie et d'Essais (LNE), Paris, France.
¹³ Former, Reference Institute for Bioanalytics, Bonn, Germany.
¹⁴ Central Institute of Clinical and Chemical Laboratory Diagnostics, University Hospital of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
¹⁵ DEKS, Rigshospitalet-Glostrup, Glostrup, Denmark.
¹⁶ National Measurement Laboratory, LGC, Teddington, UK.
¹⁷ School of Biosciences and Medicine, Faculty of Health & Medical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.
¹⁸ University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary.
¹⁹ INSTAND e.V. Society for Promoting Quality Assurance in Medical Laboratories, Düsseldorf, Germany.
²⁰ GBD Gesellschaft für Biotechnologische Diagnostik mbH, Berlin, Germany.
²¹ Institut für Klinische Chemie und Pathobiochemie, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany.
²² ECAT Foundation, Voorschoten, The Netherlands.
²³ SOD Sicurezza e Qualità AOU Careggi, Firenze, Italy.
²⁴ The Norwegian Organization for Quality Improvement of Laboratory Examinations (Noklus), Bergen, Norway.
²⁵ Foundation for Quality Assessment in Laboratory Medicine (SKML), Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
²⁶ Department of Laboratory Medicine, Radboud Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
²⁷ Weqas, Cardiff, UK.
²⁸ IQVD GmbH, Institut für Qualitätssicherung in der Virusdiagnostik, Berlin, Germany.
²⁹ Canadian Microbiology Proficiency Testing Program (CMPT), Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.

PMID: 39753204
DOI: 10.1515/cclm-2024-1291

Free article

Review

Behind the scenes of EQA – characteristics, capabilities, benefits and assets of external quality assessment (EQA): Part III – EQA samples

Christoph Buchta et al. Clin Chem Lab Med. 2025.

Free article

. 2025 Jan 6;63(5):868-878.

doi: 10.1515/cclm-2024-1291. Print 2025 Apr 28.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Austrian Association for Quality Assurance and Standardization of Medical and Diagnostic Tests (ÖQUASTA), Vienna, Austria.
² Birmingham Quality (UK NEQAS), Part of University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham, UK.
³ UK National External Quality Assessment Scheme (UK NEQAS) for Haematology, Watford, UK.
⁴ Centre Toulousain pour le Contrôle de qualité en Biologie clinique (CTCB), Toulouse, France.
⁵ Co-Chair of the EQALM Virtual Microscopy Working Group; EQALM Virtual Microscopy Working Group Steering Committee Member, Geneva, Switzerland.
⁶ Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia Quality Assurance Program, Sydney, Australia.
⁷ Labquality, Helsinki, Finland.
⁸ Former Director, Birmingham Quality, Former President, UK NEQAS, Birmingham, UK.
⁹ Director of the Department of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands.
¹⁰ Chair of the IFCC Scientific Division EC and Chair of the EFLM Task Force on European Regulatory Affairs, Milano, Italy.
¹¹ Sciensano, Brussels, Belgium.
¹² Laboratoire National de Métrologie et d'Essais (LNE), Paris, France.
¹³ Former, Reference Institute for Bioanalytics, Bonn, Germany.
¹⁴ Central Institute of Clinical and Chemical Laboratory Diagnostics, University Hospital of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
¹⁵ DEKS, Rigshospitalet-Glostrup, Glostrup, Denmark.
¹⁶ National Measurement Laboratory, LGC, Teddington, UK.
¹⁷ School of Biosciences and Medicine, Faculty of Health & Medical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.
¹⁸ University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary.
¹⁹ INSTAND e.V. Society for Promoting Quality Assurance in Medical Laboratories, Düsseldorf, Germany.
²⁰ GBD Gesellschaft für Biotechnologische Diagnostik mbH, Berlin, Germany.
²¹ Institut für Klinische Chemie und Pathobiochemie, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany.
²² ECAT Foundation, Voorschoten, The Netherlands.
²³ SOD Sicurezza e Qualità AOU Careggi, Firenze, Italy.
²⁴ The Norwegian Organization for Quality Improvement of Laboratory Examinations (Noklus), Bergen, Norway.
²⁵ Foundation for Quality Assessment in Laboratory Medicine (SKML), Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
²⁶ Department of Laboratory Medicine, Radboud Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
²⁷ Weqas, Cardiff, UK.
²⁸ IQVD GmbH, Institut für Qualitätssicherung in der Virusdiagnostik, Berlin, Germany.
²⁹ Canadian Microbiology Proficiency Testing Program (CMPT), Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.

PMID: 39753204
DOI: 10.1515/cclm-2024-1291

Abstract

Providers of external quality assessment (EQA) programs evaluate data or information obtained and reported by participant laboratories using their routine procedures to examine properties or measurands in samples provided for this purpose. EQA samples must offer participants an equal chance to obtain accurate results, while being designed to provide results in clinically relevant ranges. It is the responsibility of the EQA provider to meet the necessary requirements for homogeneity, stability and some other properties of the EQA items in order to offer participants a fair, reliable and technically interesting EQA experience. Thus, the samples are at the heart and in the centre of EQA and its success depends on their quality. This manuscript describes the requirements for EQA samples and the activities of EQA providers to achieve them.

Keywords: external quality assessment (EQA); interlaboratory comparison; proficiency testing (PT).

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References

1. Buchta, C, Marrington, R, De la Salle, B, Albarède, S, Badrick, T, Berghäll, H, et al.. Behind the scenes of EQA – characteristics, capabilities, benefits and assets of external quality assessment (EQA), Part I – EQA in general and EQA programs in particular. Clin Chem Lab Med 2025;63:844–58. https://doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2024-1289 .
1. Buchta, C, De la Salle, B, Marrington, R, Aburto Almonacid, A, Albarède, S, Badrick, T, et al.. Behind the scenes of EQA – characteristics, capabilities, benefits and assets of external quality assessment (EQA), Part II – EQA cycles. Clin Chem Lab Med 2025;63:859–67. https://doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2024-1290 . - DOI - PubMed
1. Buchta, C, De la Salle, B, Marrington, R, Albarède, S, Bardick, T, Bietenbeck, A, et al.. Behind the scenes of EQA – characteristics, capabilities, benefits and assets of external quality assessment (EQA) Part IV – benefits for participant laboratories. Clin Chem Lab Med 2025;63:879–97. https://doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2024-1292 . - DOI - PubMed
1. Buchta, C, De la Salle, B, Marrington, R, Aburto Almonacid, A, Albarède, S, Bardick, T, et al.. Behind the scenes of EQA – characteristics, capabilities, benefits and assets of external quality assessment (EQA) Part V – benefits for stakeholders other than participants. Clin Chem Lab Med 2025;63:898–915. https://doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2024-1293 . - DOI - PubMed
1. Bigio, J, MacLean, ELH, Das, R, Sulis, G, Kohli, M, Berhane, S, et al.. Accuracy of package inserts of SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen tests: a secondary analysis of manufacturer versus systematic review data. Lancet Microbe 2023;4:e875–82. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2666-5247(23)00222-7 . - DOI

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Behind the scenes of EQA – characteristics, capabilities, benefits and assets of external quality assessment (EQA): Part III – EQA samples

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Behind the scenes of EQA – characteristics, capabilities, benefits and assets of external quality assessment (EQA): Part III – EQA samples

Authors

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Abstract

References

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