Laboratory quality management
Ensuring accuracy, timeliness and reliability of test results are major challenges for health laboratories. The International Health Regulations (IHR 2005) encourages Member States to build functional laboratory quality management systems into their national laboratory system for the most reliable detection of potential outbreaks and emergencies of international concern. WHO helps Member States to strengthen laboratory quality management through the development of training materials, guidance documents and practical tools with which laboratories can assess their quality system and take necessary steps to improve and sustain this capacity.
WHO also conducts activities which assess the functionality of laboratory quality management systems. These include supporting simulation exercises (SimEx) and the distribution of External Quality Assessment programmes (EQA)and Proficiency Testing (PT) for specific pathogens, such as arboviruses, viral hemorrhagic fevers (VHF) and for general microbiology including antimicrobial resistant organisms (AMR).
