Overview
Read this article from a comprehensive knowledge base, updated and supplemented with articles reviewed by scientific committees.
Read the articleAUTHOR
-
Max FEINBERG: former Director of Research at INRA, Paris
INTRODUCTION
You are in an accredited laboratory, regularly audited by Cofrac. The latter requires you to take part in proficiency testing. Why this request? Why refer to ISO 17025 to justify it? What is the purpose of proficiency testing? What can you do if there are no proficiency tests for the analyte you're measuring?
Traceability of measurements made by physico-chemical or biochemical analysis laboratories is difficult to achieve, and specific solutions have had to be found, as explained in ISO 17025:
carry out proficiency testing by interlaboratory comparison (CIL) ;
manufacture certified reference materials (CRMs) ;
identify primary analysis methods.
The aim of this sheet is to describe proficiency testing, which is the main method used by accredited laboratories to ensure traceability and comply with ISO 17025.
The Ultimate Scientific and Technical Reference
This article is included in
Laboratory quality and safety procedures
This offer includes:
Knowledge Base
Updated and enriched with articles validated by our scientific committees
Services
A set of exclusive tools to complement the resources
Practical Path
Operational and didactic, to guarantee the acquisition of transversal skills
Doc & Quiz
Interactive articles with quizzes, for constructive reading
Proficiency testing
Why are there different types of interlaboratory comparisons?
Bibliography
Feinberg M., Bugner E., Theiller G. Houba X., Kadijk F. Expression of the reference value for proficiency tests (1995) J. of Chemometrics 9, 197-209
ISO 13528:2002, Statistical methods used in proficiency testing by inter-laboratory comparisons (2002) ISO, Geneva (under revision)
ISO 17043:2007, Conformity assessment. General requirements...
Websites
COMAR is a website dedicated to gathering and disseminating information on available certified reference materials. Its database lists thousands of certified reference materials (CRMs) produced worldwide by around 220 producers in 25 countries.
...
The Ultimate Scientific and Technical Reference
