SARS-CoV-2 schemes

EVALUATIONS

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03.05.2024

QualiCont Nonprofit Kft. is accredited by NAH (National Accreditation Authority) under registration number NAH-8-0002/2023 according to the MSZ EN ISO/IEC 17043:2010 standard and it has been certified since 2001 according to the ISO 9001 standard. QualiCont offers surveys meeting the requirements of the ISO 15189 and the ISO 22870 standards.

In the quality assurance of the laboratories, the proper interpretation and the application of the evaluations of the results of the EQA schemes are required in order to improve the analytical performance. QualiCont would like to help this work in the Evaluations publication by summarizing the features of various evaluations, furthermore, by introducing the statistical analysis and the evaluation of the measurement results provided by QualiCont.

Modes of presenting the performance assessment of participants:

Statistics – Pre-evaluation

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26.03.2024

QualiCont Nonprofit Kft. is accredited by NAH (National Accreditation Authority) under registration number NAH-8-0002/2023 according to the MSZ EN ISO/IEC 17043:2010 standard (Conformity assessment — General requirements for proficiency testing) and it has been certified since 2011 according to the ISO 9001 standard. QualiCont offers surveys meeting the requirements of the ISO 15189 (Medical laboratories. Requirements for quality and competence) and the ISO 22870 (Point-of-care testing (POCT). Requirements for quality and competence) standards, too.

The flowchart provides an overview of the steps of the PT survey, of which we draw the attention of our Participants to the "Statistics - Pre-evaluation" section in this Newsletter.

For closed, but not yet evaluated schemes, short-term statistics are immediately available at the end of result-reporting period. Simple statistical analysis of the measurement results in the current database, which allows for quick observation and correction of possible measurement errors.

EQA samples

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01.03.2024

QualiCont Nonprofit Kft. is accredited by NAH (National Accreditation Authority) under registration number
NAH-8-0002/2023 according to the MSZ EN ISO/IEC 17043:2010 standard (Conformity assessment — General requirements for proficiency testing) and it has been certified since 2011 according to the ISO 9001 standard. QualiCont offers surveys meeting the requirements of the ISO 15189 (Medical laboratories. Requirements for quality and competence) and the ISO 22870 (Point-of-care testing (POCT). Requirements for quality and competence) standards, too.

Requirements for the accreditation of medical laboratories (ISO 15189 – 5.6.3 Interlaboratory comparisons):

„The laboratory should participate in interlaboratory comparison programmes that substantially fulfil the relevant requirements of ISO/IEC 17043.”

„Interlaboratory comparison programme(s) chosen by the laboratory shall, as far as possible, provide clinically relevant challenges that mimic patient samples and have the effect of checking the entire examination process, including pre-examination procedures, and post-examination procedures, where possible.”

„The laboratory shall integrate interlaboratory comparison samples into the routine workflow in a manner that follows, as much as possible, the handling of patient samples.”

Clinical significance and methods of bile acid determination

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16.02.2023

Dear Colleagues,
Dear Partners,

We would like to recommend a useful reading to your attention! A comprehensive review written by Prof. Erzsébet Toldy, the expert of QualiCont, entitled ‘Clinical significance and methods of bile acid determination’ can be found at the link below.

Click here

External quality control of the bile acid parameter is available at QualiCont within the 100. Clinical Chemistry Proficiency Test. We are waiting for your orders!

Changes related to reporting of results and evaluation

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27.01.2023

Dear Colleagues,
Dear Partners,

There are some changes and novelties compared to last year that we would like to draw your attention to! The following changes apply to reporting of results, which is in progress at the moment, and to evaluation:

1. In the case of proficiency tests organized four times and twice a year - except for microbiological schemes - the deadline for reporting results will be 20 working days instead of the previous 10 working days..


2. The evaluation deadline is shortened: the evaluation of all proficiency tests will be published within a maximum of 3 months!


3. The evaluation deadline for the proficiency tests, which are organised 6-12 times a year, stays maximum of 15 working days, and the immediate statistics are still available after the deadline of reporting the results.


4. QualiCont accepts written objections related to a specific assessment within 15 working days from the notification of the publication of the assessment by e-mail!

We hope that the changes serve to your satisfaction and further increase the quality of our service! We try to continue to provide our services with sufficient precision and expertise, using more than 25 years of experience!

The Scheme Catalogue for 2023 and the Dispatch Calendar can be found at the link below.
If you have any questions about the surveys, we are here to assist you!

https://qualicont.com/qc/download_en.html

EQALM symposium 2022

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26.10.2022

EQALM (The European Organization for External Quality Assurance Providers in Laboratory Medicine) is an organization bringing together European EQA organizers in the field of laboratory medicine, of which QualiCont has been a founding member since 1996.

The EQALM 2022 symposium was held in Athens on October 12-14 2022 , where 3 colleagues of QualiCont (Clinical Laboratory Diagnostic Consultant, Program-coordinator, and Head of Quality Management) also participated.

(click on the image to view it in a larger size)

On the first day of the symposium, the 9 working groups of the EQALM were in the main focus, in which the colleagues of the QualiCont took an active role. For 2 working groups the QualiCont provides steering committee members!

QualiCont is also a co-author of two international articles:

External quality assessment providers’ services appear to more impact the immunohaematology performance of laboratories than national regulatory and economic conditions (Buchta et al., CCLM).

Is harmonisation of performance assessment in nonquantitative proficiency testing possible/necessary? (Tiikkainen et al., Springer)

Later on, representatives of EQA organizations presented the actualities of the external quality assesment of measurement sites.
In the breaks between the presentations and on the social programs our colleagues had further opportunities to discuss issues and exchange experiences related to quality and EQA programs and of course to take time to see the sights of Athens.

I-QC Next - New functions

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06.12.2021

Dear Colleagues & Partners,

We are pleased to inform our participants that in the I-QC Next result entering system several new functions became active!

1. To assist the guide on the page, headings by year and year/survey have been added to the list of surveys under the Surveys and Evaluations menu options.
2. On the Evaluations tab in the list of schemes there are download arrows at the year, survey and next to the scheme names. By clicking on these the corresponding documents can be downloaded one by one or together in a ZIP file.
   The purpose of this development was to make downloading evaluation documents faster. From now on there is no need to open the schemes one by one.
3. At the Survey and Evaluation tabs without opening a scheme you can see new dates:
   - Dates of 'Deadline of evaluation publication'
   - Dates of publishing
4. Statistics:
   • If there are more than one result sheets for a scheme, the results can be selected separately at the short-term statistics (histogram, Youden-plot) and the long-term statistics as well and they can be seen on the result sheets separately and together.
   • If there are more than one result sheets for a scheme and the results were evaluated in different groups, these will be shown in different rows at the table below the statistics and different colours will indicate the different target value ranges.
   • If groupings are added, the settings affect the histogram(s) and the Youden-plot as well, thus the chosen group can be seen on the Youden-plot with different colours.

I-QC Next: automatic e-mail notifications

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28.05.2021

Dear Colleagues,
Dear Partners,

We are happy to inform our participants that the enhancement of the I-QC Next data reporting system’s e-mail notifications has been completed.
The following table shows in which cases the system sends out automatic notifications:

Event	When	Recipient
Registration	Immediately	Head of laboratory Contact person
Forgotten password	Immediately	Head of laboratory
Order confirmation	Immediately	Head of laboratory Contact person
Beginning of a survey	7 days before result reporting begins	Head of laboratory Contact person
Survey validation, Validation withdrawal	Immediately	Contact person
Notification about unvalidated result sheet	2 days before result reporting ends and 2 days after result reporting has ended	Head of laboratory Contact person
New evaluations available	On Mondays and Fridays if there are new evaluations available	Head of laboratory Contact person

We would like to remind you that this is part of the reason why you should always specify correct, valid e-mail addresses when signing the contract, so that the appropriate people receive notifications. If any of your details have changed, you can modify them in the ‘Contracts’ tab in the I-QC Next software or e-mail our office with the changes.
Please read all messages you receive from QualiCont, otherwise you may miss important information and deadlines regarding surveys!