We are pleased to announce that SEDRI-LIMS now has support for both Internal Quality Control (IQC) and External Quality Assessment (EQA).
To accommodate IQC, we have created importable versions of the QC tables published by CLSI and EUCAST for all organism strains tested by these authorities and will update these tables as new versions are released, just as we do for breakpoints. To perform IQC in your laboratory, you first need to create one or more IQC test profiles containing the organism strains and antibiotics used for each test run (plus the test method - disk or MIC - and the guidelines used for each test). You can have as many profiles as you like, but the intention is that you create a profile for each type of test regularly performed. For example, you may have a daily test run that has a small number of tests and a weekly test run that is more comprehensive. These would have different profiles associated with them. With IQC profiles in place, to actually run an IQC test, you would simply select the appropriate profile, run it, enter the results and save when complete. The UI will indicate whether each result is within the acceptable range or outside of it.
To handle EQA, where external specimens with dummy patients are to be subject to the usual laboratory workflow, you would create a separate client organisation called, e.g. "EQA" or whatever you are comfortable with, to partition your EQA data from genuine patient results. Through configuration, this client organisation can then be exempt from standard reports and exports and solely included in EQA reports and exports.
Article first published: 23/03/23