EQA Programs

WEQAS offers a range of CPA (EQA) accredited schemes for Laboratory Medicine. For a full list of the schemes offered, including analytes covered and material provided, please see the EQA Program Schemes section.

What is EQA?

External Quality Assessment (EQA) in medical laboratories have evolved over the past 50 years to provide more sophisticated systems compared with the simple participants’ analytical performance evaluation of earlier years. There are clear distinctions between the proficiency testing schemes and the evolved External Quality Assurance Programs (EQAP). Not only do they provide participant performance evaluation including pre- and postanalytical evaluation, but also method evaluation, and postmarketing vigilance. Education is pivotal in these schemes with training and help being provided. Schemes that do not include Quality Assurance as defined in EQAP will ultimately fail to improve quality, and laboratories should consider these elements in their choice of EQA provider. The key objective of EQA is continuous quality improvement within laboratory medicine, and EQA providers should therefore include quality improvement of scheme design as an essential requirement of the service.

External Quality Assurance Program (EQAP) is an interlaboratory comparison designed and operated to assure one or more of the following aspects, which will be described in the following sections:

The primary intention of the activities of an EQAP in laboratory medicine shall be to support quality improvement of the services provided by the participating laboratories for the benefit of the patient.