title: Collective opinion paper on findings of the 2011 convocation of experts on laboratory quality.
abstract: In April of 2011, Bio-Rad Laboratories Quality System Division (Irvine, CA, USA) hosted its third annual convocation of experts on laboratory quality in the city of Salzburg, Austria. As in the past 2 years, over 60 experts from across Europe, Israel, USA and South Africa convened to discuss contemporary issues and topics of importance to the clinical laboratory. This year's conference had EN/ISO 15189 and accreditation as the common thread for most discussions, with topics ranging from how to meet requirements like uncertainty to knowledge gained from those already accredited. The participants were divided into five discussion working groups (WG) with assigned topics. The outcome of these discussions is the subject of this summary.
authors.affiliation: Universitätsklinikum Düsseldorf, Institut für Virologie, Düsseldorf, Germany.
authors.forename: Ortwin
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Adams
authors.forename: Greg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cooper
authors.forename: Callum
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fraser
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hubmann
authors.forename: Graham
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Plebani
authors.forename: Oswald
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Sonntag
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vaubourdolle
mesh_terms: D000068:Accreditation; D006801:Humans; D007753:Laboratories / Q000592:standards*; D059021:Laboratory Proficiency Testing / Q000592:standards; D011786:Quality Control; D035501:Uncertainty