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
Christoph Buchta, Rachel Marrington, Barbara De la Salle, Stéphanie Albarède, Tony Badrick, Andreas Bietenbeck, David Bullock, Janne Cadamuro, Vincent Delatour, Enes Dusinovic, Wolf‐Jochen Geilenkeuser, Gro Gidske, Andrea Griesmacher, Alexander Haliassos, Derek Holzhauser, Jim F. Huggett, Serafeim Karathanos, Paola Pezzati, Sverre Sandberg, Aditi Sarkar, Anne Elisabeth Solsvik, Michael Spannagl, Marc Thelen, Veronica Restelli, Lucy A. Perrone
Abstract
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.