The role of the External Quality Assessment in evaluating laboratory’s performance: KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Experience
- Isaac Musungu, KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Laboratories
- Horance Gumba, KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Laboratories
INTRODUCTION
EQA refers to an external assessment of a laboratory performance in comparison to its peer and/or to accuracy based reference system. EQAs are normally organized into surveys which are carried out by sending a set of blinded samples from the EQA service provider to a participating laboratory, for analysis in the same way patient samples are analyzed. EQA is used for assessment of laboratory performance against set standards; comparing laboratory performance against peers; and provides evidence that a laboratory is competent to produce reliable and accurate results. The objective of the study was to evaluate KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Clinical Trials Laboratory performance using the Standard deviation index (SDI) performance indicator used by UKNEQAS for full blood count.
METHOD
24 UKNEQAS materials for the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Clinical Trials Laboratory were analyzed and reports reviewed with the intent of checking each full blood count parameter’s SDI which the distance of each result from the consensus is mean and is used to assess the performance of individual EQA material. Repeat analysis was done to all out of range full blood count parameters.
RESULTS
Out of the 24 UKNEQAS materials analyzed for measured parameters, 22 (92%) white blood cells parameter were within the +/- 2SD while 2 (8%) were out of range due to sample integrity. All Red blood cells (100%), hemoglobin (100%) and packed cell volume (100%) parameters were within the +/- 2SD while 23 (96%) platelets parameter was within +/- 2SD. All out of range results were within +/-2SD upon repeat analysis.
| Results | Full Blood count parameters | ||||
| White blood cells (WBC) | Red blood cell (RBC) | Haemoglobin (HBG) | Packed cell volume (PCV) | Platelets (PLT) | |
| Results within +/-2SD | 22 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 23 |
| Results >2SD | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Total | 24 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 24 |
CONCLUSION
KEMRI—Wellcome Trust clinical trials laboratory has performed excellently in UKNEQAS full blood count as depicted by the results. This explained why most users within KEMRI-Wellcome Trust have more confidence in clinical trials laboratory section. EQA can be used to assess and monitor the quality status of internal procedures and processes and identification of internal bias.