Inside External Quality Assessment: Structure, Lifecycle, and Stakeholder Impact of EQA Programmes
The first in a five-part series detailing the role of external quality assessment in ensuring IVD performance quality, this paper covers the history, legal and ethical foundations, IT infrastructure, and lifecycle of EQA programmes. It explains the processes behind sample delivery and result assessment, and describes unique requirements for extra-examination and educational EQA programmes. The series aims to give laboratory users and regulators deeper insight into the substantial but often underappreciated EQA ecosystem.
The original study
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.
- Authors
- Buchta C, Marrington R, De la Salle B, Albarède S, Badrick T, Bietenbeck A, et al.
- Journal
- Clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine
- Type
- Journal Article, Review
- PMID
- 39753377
Original 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.