EQALM Symposium 2017, Dublin

EQALM Symposium 2017, Dublin

EQALM Annual Symposium, 19-20 Oct 2017, Dublin

IEQAS were the national organiser for this international event, in the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Santry, Dublin. IEQAS is a member of EQALM, a “European group of organisations involved in the external quality assessment of laboratory medicine services”. 

 

The 2-day event was an excellent opportunity for discussion about all-things-EQA, with 82 delegates from 27 different countries (mostly European, but also Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, Turkey, USA). 

 

Book of Abstracts  Presentations will be available soon on www.eqalm.org.

 

Feedback from Delegates.

 

Many thanks to the Academy for their support for this Symposium.

The programme opened with five EQALM Working Group meetings (Frequency, Haematology, Haemostasis, Virtual Microscopy, Microbiology).

 

Dr Ann Leonard (Tallaght Hospital, Dublin) presented Quality Monitoring of Pre-Analytical Sample Labelling, which was very well-received.  Prof Mauro Panteghini (Research Centre for the Metrological Traceability in Laboratory Medicine (CIRME), University of Milan, Italy) presented the annual “Adam Uldall lecture”: The role of EQA in the verification of in-vitro medical diagnostics.

Other plenary sessions included:

  • EQA and Chlamydia:Protecting the community from the spread of STIs
  • Pre and post examination of microbiology by EQA
  • A critical view on ISO standard 13528
  • Statistical approach for optimization of EQA studies of molecular and serological viral diagnostics
  • Definition of EQAS allowable limits for HbA1c: a candidate method

 

There were 10 poster presentations on various topics, including:

  • High rates of variation in HLA-DQ2/DQ8 diagnostic testing: Results from an RCPAQAP Pilot Program
  • Identifying the possible errors in medical laboratories using the outliers from the external quality control
  • Six Sigma methodology application in the evaluation of the glucose results (2014-2016) obtained by the participant laboratories of Programa Nacional de Avaliação Externa da Qualidade (PNAEQ)
  • Sweat chloride measurement in Croatia: an improvement guided by EQA program
  • The first Malaria Molecular EQA scheme launched by UK NEQAS(P) [United Kingdom National External Quality Assessment Service Parasitology]
  • Integrated external quality assessment schemes – right way to meet requirements of ISO 15189
  • How can the EQA provider encourage the participation in Pre-Analytical schemes
  • Approach to a patient with abnormal Activated Partial Thromboplastin Time (APTT) – results from survey of EQAS participants in India
  • External Quality Assessment for Bacterial Identification: A 4-Year Multicentre Implementation Study
The Symposium Dinner in Cleaver East (Clarence Hotel, Temple Bar) was a great success and enjoyed by all.