Guidelines For External Quality Assessment Scheme Organization

This document describes a model for EQAS organization based on the following principles: 1) education, i.e. EQAS should be intended more for quality improvement than for surveillance of laboratory proficiency, even if they should require corrective actions in case of poor performance, 2) organization by a third party, independent of manufacturers producing reagents or analytical systems and operating according to the ISO 17043 standard, and 3) use of commutable materials to provide information on the trueness of measurements. Optimal characteristics, structure, and organization EQAS shall have to be recognised by SIBioC are described. Special schemes for pre- and post-analytical phases are also considered.