EXTERNAL QUALITY ASSESSMENT
Why UK NEQAS is here –education, education, education!
Sharing knowledge is the key to more accurate laboratory testing, and also for longer-term, better patient outcomes. Scheme Directors Melody Tabiner and Richard Haggas reveal the many and varied ways in which UK NEQAS shares its expert knowledge.
From supporting research by global health organisations, to producing guidelines for institutions, UK NEQAS is improving the accuracy of diagnostic testing by putting education at the heart of EQA services. Operating in over 175 countries, we are unashamedly proud of our EQA programmes. So proud that we want to share our expertise and findings widely; so that collaboratively, every laboratory, every centre, every clinician, and every scientist can work better for the benefit of patients. External quality assessment is a means of assessing the effectiveness of laboratory quality assurance procedures by distributing known but undisclosed specimens or specifically designed online case scenarios, and assessing the results benchmarked against equivalent laboratories and methodologies. It is an efficient, external, unbiased and independent assessment of laboratory processes at a single moment in time that delivers assurance to clinicians and patients that the information they receive is as accurate as it can be. The EQA programmes operated by UK NEQAS are a mixture of qualitative, quantitative and interpretative programmes that are open to all laboratory types: clinical, research and industrial, and they are available worldwide, encompassing what is
probably the biggest EQA network in the world. As a registered charity, all programmes are operated on a not-for- profit basis, are designed by experts in the relevant clinical field, and are created to educate participants rather than be punitive. The role of UK NEQAS in EQA appears
to be clear but you may be surprised by the scope of EQA material available, the value and volume of support delivered time and time again to participants, and the variety of opportunities that are in place to help scientists, clinicians and sometimes the patients themselves to broaden their understanding.
Constructive guidance Laboratories around the world use EQA to evidence the accuracy of their testing and assure clinicians and patients that they are receiving the correct information to inform diagnosis and clinical management. To ensure the provision of high quality EQA and delivery of appropriate scientific support in each specialist area of clinical laboratory testing, each UK NEQAS service is
UK NEQAS teams are able to create bespoke online learning resources, including a ‘virtual lab’ to evaluate knowledge of testing and documentation required for blood samples.
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