Quality management in public health laboratories
Laboratory Quality Management System training toolkit
The quality of laboratory results is of critical importance in the investigation of epidemics.
Objective
The introduction of quality systems in public health laboratories is a key activity of the WHO Lyon Office. External Quality Assessment (EQA) is a valuable tool to help countries evaluate the accuracy of diagnostic practices and for identifying areas for improvement.
Main activities
Improving laboratory performance
The EQA programme is a tool made available to countries to:
- help national laboratories to identify and document their performance capabilities for standard diagnostic methods for priority communicable diseases;
- help determine appropriate action to increase competency in laboratories;
- assist in the establishment of a communications network among laboratories;
- provide continuing education on standard diagnostic methods for priority communicable diseases;
- provide useful data for the potential accreditation of laboratories;
- strengthen vertical, pathogen-specific programmes and interactions between them.
How EQA works
One or two organizing laboratories prepare specimens and ship them for testing to all participating laboratories. These laboratories send back their results (which are kept anonymous from the other participants) for evaluation by the organizer. Following the results, recommendations are made to improve laboratory capacities.
Milestones
- 68 African and 20 Eastern Mediterranean laboratories are participating in the two regional microbiology EQA programmes, that cover priority diseases, such as meningitis, diarrhea, plague, malaria and other parasitic diseases;
- 5 regional EQA managers have been trained to run the regional EQA schemes;
- microbiology EQA programme policy and procedures are being developed for Africa and will be made available to other WHO regions or countries;
- 6 African countries have received training on EQA and participated in a workshop to strengthen or launch a national EQA programme.
Other activities
- Global Survey of Laboratory Quality Standards and External Quality Assessment Schemes. See link below.
- development of a resource centre for public health laboratories;
- design and production of a training package on quality management systems;
- preparation of an international conference on quality systems for resource-limited countries, April 2008;
- publication on the essential functions of public health laboratories for epidemic and pandemic alert and response, 2007;
- publication of a set of recommendations on quality systems for resource-limited countries, 2008.
- Global Survey of Laboratory Quality Standards and External Quality Assessment Schemes
- WHO Lyon Office home page
Contact
E-mail: ihrinfo@who.int