Quality in Clinical Laboratories: An unfinished journey - Mario Plebani

Mario Plebani

Full Professor of Clinical Biochemistry and Clinical Molecular Biology Medical School - University of Padova, Director, Dept of Laboratory Medicine, University-Hospital, Padova, Italy

Quality in laboratory medicine has been defined “an unfinished journey” as “the more essential the laboratory information provided, the more assured its quality should be”. In the last few decades, a dramatic reduction of analytical errors has been achieved thanks to automation, assay standardization, information technology, improved training but also as a result of defining and setting analytical performance specifications (APS). Available evidence has been collected to demonstrate that extra-analytical phases are currently much more vulnerable to errors than the analytical phase. Efforts are in progress to improve pre-analytical steps of the testing cycle as well as the final steps (post-analytical phase). A model of quality indicators (MQI) has been developed by the IFCC WG LEPS (Laboratory errors and patient safety) and recently published data highlight the importance of these indicators for monitoring and improving extra-analytical phases of the total testing process.