By Editor on 5/30/2018
By Julie Shaw, Danijela Konforte, Gayle Waite, Michael Knauer and Paul Yip

Introduction
Assays, especially those in clinical chemistry, are designed to measure analytes (i.e., the measurand) in the appropriate patient specimens. However, there is the potential for inaccurate analyte measurements when testing materials are different from patient specimens. Examples include quality control (QC) material, proficiency testing (PT) material, and other types of patient specimens such as body fluids.

Blood cell morphologic identification is a critical component of hematology laboratory practice, and is an important diagnostic aid. Maintaining competency and achieving consistent reporting practices are ongoing challenges in this area.

IQMH Proficiency Testing (PT) programs have been accredited since 2010 by the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA) to ISO 17043 Conformity assessment — General requirements for proficiency testing.

The assessment was held remotely from April 12^th–14^th with two A2LA assessors (audit team). The programs were thoroughly examined and assessed against 25 categories of technical and management requirements including design of schemes, evaluation of results, document control, confidentiality, and customer service.

An IQMH Proficiency Testing poster titled Comparison of anti-D titre results by conventional tube technique using non-identical versus identical indicator cells through a retrospective review of IQMH surveys was presented at the CSTM Conference 2022 by Chang-Keun (CK) Lee, IQMH Proficiency Testing Consultant Technologist, with the support of the Transfusion Medicine Scientific Committee. 

Georgina Ralevski joined the IQMH team as Director, Centre for Proficiency Testing in July 2021. Georgina is a medical laboratory technologist (MLT) where she worked in a public health laboratory setting for over 32 years.

IQMH Proficiency Testing welcomed Ekene Dada as Consultant Technologist in the Microbiology Proficiency Testing program in May 2021. Ekene graduated with a Bachelor of Health Science degree in Medical Laboratory Science at Ontario Tech University in 2012 and obtained her Master of Science degree in Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Western Ontario in 2014. 

Register now for the upcoming virtual course Protection from Risk running November 15–29, 2021.

This is a six-hour seminar delivered virtually in three segments to learn with peers exactly how to integrate an effective risk management program into an existing or brand-new quality management system.

Elevate, the IQMH newsletter, will be reimagined in 2021 to serve our customers better! The publication will be paused after the release of the January 2021 issue to focus our resources on understanding our clients’ communication needs. The IQMH blog remains a great source of information on company and Proficiency Testing-related news.

Visit the IQMH blog or subscribe to IQMH news to stay in the know! Existing Proficiency Testing clients can also subscribe to specific program-related information in the client portal, QView™.