[Quality assessment scheme required in health checkups and healthcare advice proposed by Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare].
Quality control schemes are essentially required for the health check programs proposed by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. As you know, quality assessment schemes can be divided into two concepts, one is an internal quality control scheme-managed intra-laboratory measurement system, and the other is an external quality control system managed between laboratories with acceptable error levels of measurement systems. Today, the two concepts of uncertainty and traceability have been newly introduced into laboratories. Ways to employ these two concepts in laboratories for health check programs are described and discussed in this paper. In the case of internal quality control, the concept of uncertainty is very important for laboratories, because it clearly identifies the sources of error in laboratories. On the other hand, the concept of traceability is important for the use of calibrators to reduce measurement disparities between laboratories. The correct use of calibrators traceable to SI or values internationally agreed upon regarding standard materials markedly reduce inter-laboratory gaps in measurement systems. We discuss the correct use of calibrators and the uncertainty concepts in the field of health check programs proposed by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.
Hamamatsu University, School of Medicine, Hamamatsu 431-3192, Japan.
Takashi
T
Kanno
Makoto
M
Kaneko
D006801:Humans; D010808:Physical Examination / Q000592:standards*; D011786:Quality Control