Special issue on External Quality Assessment in Laboratory Medicine: Current Challenges and Future Trends

Abstract

Quality assurance in the modern clinical laboratory is evidenced through the complementary processes of internal quality control and external quality assessment, also known as proficiency testing. By these processes and the achievement of accreditation to international (e.g. ISO) standards, the laboratory is able to demonstrate its competence to the users of its services, i.e. the clinicians and the patients they care for, who have an expectation that the results of diagnostic testing and monitoring of treatment are correct, comparable and fit-for-purpose within the scope of the service, wherever they are performed.