The versatility of external quality assessment for the surveillance of laboratory and <i>in vitro</i> diagnostic performance: SARS-CoV-2 viral genome detection in Austria

Abstract

Beyond providing certification for participating laboratories, EQA provides the opportunity for participants to evaluate their performance against others so that they may improve operating procedures and test systems. Well-selected EQA samples offer additional inferences to be made about assay sensitivity and reproducibility, which have practical applications.