The National Serology Reference Laboratory, Australia (NRL) offers EQAS for infectious disease serology and nucleic acid testing (NAT) in 2009.
In collaboration with AcroMetrix (Benicia, Ca. USA), AcroMetrix Europe, (Alkmaar, The Netherlands) and HealthMetrx (Vancouver, Canada) the NRL sets the standard for providing standardized quality programmes in NAT and serological testing for blood borne diseases and sexually transmitted diseases.
EQAS specifically for blood donor screening laboratories are available.
The benefits of the NRL's EQAS include:
- Challenge formats provided as three test events, each of 10 samples for serology or 5 samples for NAT that are:-
- well-characterised
- presented in a wide variety of genotypes and serotypes
- non-diluted serology samples
- Truly global programme that enables comparisons of results with laboratories in more than 50 countries
- NRL's scientific methodology applied to the design and analysis of every EQAS including assessment of testing strategy and test interpretation
- The use of DigitalPT to facilitate
- on-line notifications
- data entry and reporting
- rapid turnaround of results
- global coverage
NRL has been designated a WHO Collaborating Centre on HIV and Blood Borne Infections and is recognised as an Australian Centre of Excellence. NRL complies with Management Standard AS/NZS ISO 9001:2000, Laboratory Accreditation Standard ISO/IEC 15189:2003 and the Code of Good Manufacturing Practice - Human Blood and Tissues:2000. NRL conducts EQAS in accordance with ILAC GUIDE 13:2000.
