I'd be very interested to hear of any ways that current EQAS force or
encourage participants to behave in ways that make the processes for
EQA analysis or information management different from those for
clinical investigations...
... reporting styles
... running duplicates or rerunning
... geting the best analyst to run them
... which analyser do you run them on when there are several?
... what time of day/ day of week do you run them?
... where in relation to analyser start-up/ calibration are they run?
Do we need to set up some sort of anonymity to enable us to share
experiences in this area?
Jonathan
On 23 Apr 2009, at 09:18, Brown, Nigel wrote:
> Dear Gary
>
> The idea of EQA is to mimic a patient sample as much as possible so as
> to detect as many errors as possible. Reporting of results below a
> limit
> of quantification (where patient levels would not be reported) surely
> suggests these samples are not being treated as patient samples.
>
> If a cut-off is within a clinically relevant range, then perhaps it is
> justified to include those results, but only if patient results are
> also
> reported and the laboratory can demonstrate it has validated the assay
> for use outside its CE marking limits...
>
> I would have thought it more appropriate for the QA scheme to mark
> labs
> down who send in results in these cases.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Nigel Brown, PhD FIBMS
>
> Principal Biochemist
>
> Phone +44 20 3299 3147
> Fax +44 20 3299 3641
>
> IDM Service, Institute of Liver Studies
> King's College Hospital, London, SE5 9RS. UK.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Clinical biochemistry discussion list
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Gary Mascall
> Sent: 22 April 2009 19:21
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Reporting EQA results
>
> Recently we have had a problem with apparent poor EQA performance
> because we have sent in results as less than for a particular analyte.
> We are using the manufacturer's stated reporting range for the
> assay, so
>
> treat EQA same as patient samples and following CE regulations.
> It appears other labs do send in results, even though they are below
> the
>
> stated limits. Do these labs also report patient results at this
> level,
> or are they
> being selective for the EQA providers.
> Should EQA schemes mark you down for complying with the providers
> stated
>
> assay range? Or, should they ask users to only report within the
> ranges.
> I know this might be a problem when a different platform has a lower
> cut
> off
> level, but then surely this is what CE marking of kits etc was all
> about.
>
> Gary Mascall
> Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.
>
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