EQA Client News 1/2024

Welcome to our quarterly EQA client newsletter! As we delve into another year of innovation and collaboration, we're excited to share the latest developments from Labquality.

Topics covered in this newsletter:

• Pipette Control EQA Scheme
• EQA Coordinator Anna-Riitta Vanhanen to Retire
• Event Calendar 2024

Pipette Control EQA Scheme

Approximately a year ago, we received a request from one of our clients: could we find a way to assess the preciseness of the pipette between calibrations, as the most common calibration interval is once a year, usually by an external agency? Even though laboratory automation has increased significantly, the manual pipette is still a common tool used in laboratories. What other tools could be used to ensure the quality of the results, as a pipette is also a potential source of preanalytical error?

As an EQA provider with over 50 years of experience, we thought, could quality assessment by peer comparison also be used for checking pipettes? A year later, we have a complete pipette control scheme available in our product catalogue. Our product development team did a tremendous job by designing the scheme and running the pilot. This would not have been possible without the initial idea from our client and laboratories taking part in the pilot. Remember to send us more ideas, wishes, and development suggestions!

We now have a new product for controlling and monitoring single-channel piston pipettes used in clinical laboratories. In this scheme, participating laboratories are requested to perform multiple pipetting of a specific volume and to report the obtained mass weight for each measurement to Labscala.

This EQA scheme allows clinical laboratories to perform intermediate performance checks between pipette calibration intervals, including interlaboratory comparison and individual performance assessment against a reference measurement value. It does not replace pipette calibration. Please register for the 8205 Pipette control, August round, as soon as possible.

EQA Coordinator Anna-Riitta Vanhanen Retires After 34 Years of Service

EQA Coordinator Anna-Riitta Vanhanen is retiring in the autumn of 2024 after working at Labquality since 1990, primarily focusing on chemistry rounds. Many of you will have worked with her during the past 34 years. Biochemist Hanna Heikkilä will take charge of Anna-Riitta's EQA rounds.

A warm thank you to Anna-Riitta for her contribution and dedication to important quality assessment work from all of us at Labquality!

Labquality's Event Calendar 2024

The year 2024 will again offer several interesting national and international events in which Labquality will be involved. The most important international fairs for us are ECCMID in Barcelona, ADLM in Chicago, and Medica in Düsseldorf.

We also participate in several regional and national events in Portugal (SPML), Vilnius (BALM), and Stockholm (NFKK). If you are considering participating in the events listed below, please contact us and make an appointment.

We are happy to provide more information about our external quality assessment services (EQAS) for clinical laboratories and our IVD/MD sector regulatory services. We are also looking for new distributors from all over the world for our EQA service.

If you want to make an appointment for an event, please contact Sales Director Juha Wahlstedt at juha.wahlstedt@labquality.com.