A New Perspective on Laboratory Proficiency Testing |Biomedgrid

Accreditation bodies and Regulatory agencies require the participation of clinical laboratories in periodic External Quality Assurance (EQA) programs as a means of providing an objective evidence of the quality of testing of patients' specimens [1, 2]. The overall purpose of EQA is for identification of shortfalls in the total testing system of the laboratories for improvement and maintenance of quality. In addition to elucidating competencies of testing personnel, participation in periodic inter-laboratory comparability and proficiency testing programs may reveal gradual or sudden changes in performance of the testing system that a laboratory may be unaware of. Participation in an inter-laboratory comparability and proficiency testing programs can therefore help to verify the reliability and quality of testing as a means of improvement and maintenance of quality assurance.