EQA Darts logo: Targeting Quality

Targeting quality

About EQA Darts

External Quality Assessment programs for medical laboratories.

What is EQA?

External Quality Assessment (EQA, also known as Proficiency Testing or PT) is the evaluation of participant performance against pre-established criteria by means of interlaboratory comparisons (ISO/IEC 17043).

The drive for EQA

The World Health Organization recommends that countries establish national quality-testing programs, that all public and private laboratories be encouraged to take part and, wherever possible, that participation be mandatory (WHO manual for organizing a national external quality assessment programme for health laboratories and other testing sites, 2016).

Our vision

To be a model for a trustworthy partner, indispensable to any quality-seeking laboratory.

Our mission

To offer the market an ISO-compliant EQA program that fulfils WHO recommendations, satisfies regulatory requirements and meets laboratory needs, and to support our partners with consultancy services essential to leverage the quality of the services they offer.

Why EQA, not only IQC?

  • Internal Quality Control (IQC) assesses, in real time, whether a lab's performance is similar to its previous performance. It controls reproducibility and continuity of patient care over time.
  • EQA looks retrospectively at differences between a lab and other labs testing the same analyte. It controls accuracy and continuity of testing over geography.
  • EQA is not an alternative or competitor to IQC: both are essential tools for a clinical laboratory, ensuring continuity of patient care within and between institutions.

Our objectives

  1. Spread the culture of EQA among all Egyptian labs, focusing attention on smaller, remote and rural labs.
  2. Explain the value of EQA participation, emphasising its confidential nature — not spying or policing, not guardianship, not punitive or scandalous.
  3. Bridge financial, logistic and communication barriers between participants and the EQA provider.
  4. Assess the quality of laboratory performance on a nationwide scale.
  5. Provide assurance to consumers (health authorities, physicians and patients) that national laboratory results are reliable and up to standard.
  6. Comply with regulatory requirements (MOHP, GAHAR, ISO/IEC 17043, ISO 15189).

Reference guidelines

  • ISO/IEC 17043 — General requirements for the competence of PT providers and for the development and operation of PT schemes.
  • ISO 13528 — Statistical methods for use in proficiency testing by interlaboratory comparison.
  • ILAC-G13 — Guidelines for the requirements for the competence of providers of proficiency testing schemes.
  • IUPAC International Harmonized Protocol for the proficiency testing of analytical chemistry laboratories.

Milestones

  • 4 Jan 2020Program launch at the Concorde El Salam Hotel, Cairo.
  • 20 Jan 2021First EGAC accreditation to ISO/IEC 17043 for clinical chemistry proficiency testing.
  • 21 Mar 2025Accreditation renewed to ISO/IEC 17043:2023, valid to 19 January 2029.

What you see and receive

Examples with laboratory names removed.

The result entry screen of the participant portal: a list of 28 analytes with method, reagent source, unit and result fields, and a Save results button
The result entry screen in the participant portal. Enter a result for each analyte your laboratory runs; leave the others blank.
Sample Certificate of Participation for XYZ Lab, Clinical Chemistry (Monthly) PT Program CCM 2025, January to December 2025
A sample Certificate of Participation, issued at the end of the cycle.

The launch event

EQA Darts was launched at an event at the Concorde El Salam Hotel, Cairo, attended by laboratory directors, pathologists and quality managers.

  • Wide view of the hall with participants at round tables
  • Participants seated at a round table
  • Participants listening to a presentation
  • Participants at a round table facing the speaker
  • Six members of the EQA Darts team and guests standing together
  • The EQA Darts team and guests standing together
  • A speaker presenting beside the EQA Darts banner
  • A speaker presenting beside the EQA Darts banner
  • A speaker at the lectern during the launch event
  • A speaker presenting at the launch event
  • A speaker at the lectern during the launch event