Journal Information
Journal ID (publisher-id): BM
Journal ID (nlm-ta): Biochem Med
Title: Biochemia Medica
Abbreviated Title: Biochem. Med.
ISSN (print): 1330-0962
ISSN (electronic): 1846-7482
Publisher: Croatian Society of Medical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine
Article Information
Copyright: 2017, Croatian Society of Medical Biochemistry
Date received: 01 October 2016
Date accepted: 24 December 2016
Publication date (print and electronic): 15 February 2017
Volume: 27
Issue: 1
Pages: 30-36
Publisher ID: bm-27-30
DOI: 10.11613/BM.2017.005
An overview of the European Organization for External Quality Assurance Providers in Laboratory Medicine (EQALM)
Anne Stavelin[1]
Xavier Albe[2]
Piet Meijer[3]
Erika Sarkany[4]
Finlay MacKenzie[5]
[1] The Norwegian Quality Improvement of Primary Care Laboratories (Noklus), Haraldsplass Deaconess Hospital, Bergen, Norway
[2] Swiss Center for Quality Control (CSCQ), Chęne-Bourg, Switzerland
[3] External quality Control for Assays and Tests with a focus on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ECAT Foundation), Voorschoten, The Netherlands
[4] In Vitro Diagnostic Quality Control (QualiCont), Szeged, Hungary
[5] United Kingdom National External Quality Assessment Service (UK NEQAS) for Clinical Chemistry, Institute of Research and Development, University Hospitals Birmingham, UK
Author notes:
Corresponding author: anne.stavelin@noklus.no
The European Organisation for External Quality Assurance Providers in Laboratory Medicine (EQALM) was founded in 1996 and currently has members from 29 European countries and 6 countries from outside Europe. EQALM provides a forum for co-operation and exchange of knowledge on quality-related matters in laboratory medicine, especially with regard to external quality assessment (EQA) programs in Europe. In addition, EQALM represent the EQA providers in laboratory medicine at European level vis-ŕ-vis political, professional, scientific and other bodies, including patients’ organisations. To this end EQALM promotes activities such as organizing meetings with scientific and practical themes for members and other interested parties, issuing scientific publications, developing EQA projects and representing laboratory medicine EQA activities within other organisations and networks. EQALM is active in scientific and educational activity in different fields such as survey frequency, haematology, haemostasis, microbiology, nomenclature, virtual microscopy, traceability, accreditation, and quality assurance of the total testing process. The aim of this paper is to give an overview of the EQALM organisation.
Keywords: laboratory proficiency testing; quality assessment; laboratory medicine
