EXTERNAL QUALITY ASSESSMENT


Why UK NEQAS does what it does: it’s all about the patients


Dr Deborah Pritchard and Dr Gwen Wark, members of the UK NEQAS Board, explain how UK NEQAS gives users the confidence that they are providing the best results for their assays, and clinical teams and patients the reassurance that they are receiving the correct information to manage health conditions and treatment.


Everything that UK NEQAS does is for the benefit of patients. All the impartial advice delivered, the challenging samples sent to laboratories, the webinars and conferences hosted, and the data shared – everything is done to try to improve the potential outcomes of the patients.


With 70% of diagnoses relying on pathology results, patients are the reason why EQA exists and why it’s imperative that we always keep them in mind when delivering EQA. These are real people, going through a very challenging time in their lives, and despite us not being


physically alongside them, our work impacts their treatment and prognosis. We have to ensure that every single test result is right the first time.


Some 8000 biochemistry samples are analysed on average, every day in just one hospital – that means thousands of patients are relying on the outcome of laboratory tests either for diagnosing a new condition or for monitoring chronic disease. It puts the importance of EQA into sharp focus.


Personalised medicine Take genetic testing, for example, we know some individuals will react adversely to certain medications, which can be predicted by testing for specific genetic markers. It is, therefore, imperative that patients have accurate results for these gene tests as this determines if it is safe for the patient to take that medication, or not – a personalised medicine approach to healthcare. Laboratories have one opportunity to get it right to prevent a potentially life-threatening hypersensitivity reaction to a drug. Regular EQA samples to laboratories providing these tests help ensure these genetic test results are correct.


With 8,000 biochemistry samples analysed on average, every day in just one hospital – thousands of patients are relying on the outcome of laboratory tests, putting the importance of EQA into sharp focus.


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This is also true when testing for insulin levels. UK NEQAS supplies samples from clinical material to laboratories from our centre in Guildford, delivering EQA for laboratories to accurately determine whether their method can detect insulin preparations prescribed to diabetic patients. If EQA results are incorrect we work with laboratories providing education and advice to ensure they determine where errors occurred to prevent similar errors in patient samples that could put patient health at risk. EQA is critical to help reduce the risk of misdiagnosis from inaccurate test results and in worst case scenarios, to prevent


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