title: External Quality Assessment Scheme for reference laboratories - review of 8 years' experience.
abstract: We describe an External Quality Assessment Scheme (EQAS) intended for reference (calibration) laboratories in laboratory medicine and supervised by the Scientific Division of the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine and the responsible Committee on Traceability in Laboratory Medicine. The official EQAS website, RELA (www.dgkl-rfb.de:81), is open to interested parties. Information on all requirements for participation and results of surveys are published annually. As an additional feature, the identity of every participant in relation to the respective results is disclosed. The results of various groups of measurands (metabolites and substrates, enzymes, electrolytes, glycated hemoglobins, proteins, hormones, thyroid hormones, therapeutic drugs) are discussed in detail. The RELA system supports reference measurement laboratories preparing for accreditation according to ISO 17025 and ISO 15195. Participation in a scheme such as RELA is one of the requirements for listing of the services of a calibration laboratory by the Joint Committee on Traceability in Laboratory Medicine.
authors: Reference Laboratory 1, Reference Institute for Bioanalytics, Bonn, Germany. akessler@uni-bonn.de
authors: Anja
authors: A
authors: Kessler
authors: Lothar
authors: L
authors: Siekmann
authors: Cas
authors: C
authors: Weykamp
authors: Wolf Jochen
authors: WJ
authors: Geilenkeuser
authors: Orna
authors: O
authors: Dreazen
authors: Jonathan
authors: J
authors: Middle
authors: Gerhard
authors: G
authors: Schumann
mesh_terms: D002138:Calibration; D019963:Clinical Chemistry Tests / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D007753:Laboratories / Q000592:standards*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D012015:Reference Standards