SATELLITE MEETINGS

IFCC / EQALM Satellite Meeting

Post-Congress Symposium

Amsterdam - RAI Congress
CentreEuropaplein 22 - NL 1078 GZ
tel: +31 (0) 20 549 12 12

A joint meeting of IFCC/EMD/C-AQ (Education and Management Division/ Committee on Analytical Quality) and EQALM (European Committee for External Quality Assurance Programmes in Laboratory Medicine) is proposed that will seek to engage stakeholders in the principal areas of (a) international standard setting for the quality management and accreditation of laboratory medicine and EQA service provision, and (b) education of laboratory professionals, EQA providers and industry in metrology, measurement uncertainty and traceability.  The role of educational EQA in supporting and enhancing IFCC standardisation initiatives and the work of JCTLM will be emphasised, and the creation of an International Forum to bring together all stakeholders to improve the trueness, comparability and clinical effectiveness of laboratory medicine investigations will be proposed.
Laboratory Medicine continues to face many analytical challenges, associated mainly with poor between-method comparability arising from lack of standardisation due to inadequate implementation of metrological principles (trueness, uncertainty, traceability) and insufficient use of reference methods and materials.  Increased use of ‘point of care’ systems with uncertain quality management and unproven comparability with laboratory systems, is an additional area of concern.
These challenges require concerted and co-ordinated action by all stakeholders, including Governments, regulatory organisations, educational and professional bodies, metrology and standards institutions and the diagnostics industry, as well as laboratory professionals, clinicians and patients.  Stakeholders require appropriate knowledge and an appreciation of their role in all the processes which underpin the production of an analytically valid result with optimal trueness and fitness for purpose.

PRELIMINARY PROGRAMME

REGISTRATIONS

Registration forms can be downloaded clicking here