Proficiency Testing

Proficiency Testing Scheme Provider accreditation (ISO/IEC 17043)

INAS provides ISO/IEC 17043 accreditation to organisations providing Proficiency Testing (PT) schemes, who wish to demonstrate their competence through formal compliance with a set of internationally-recognised requirements for the planning and implementation of proficiency testing programs.

The purpose of proficiency testing is to assess performance of laboratories for their conduct of specific test, measurements or calibrations. Many laboratories operate in isolation other laboratories and do not have on-going opportunities to compare their data with others. Without such opportunities there are risks that a laboratory’s data may have errors, biases or significant differences compared to similar laboratories.

Proficiency testing provides an opportunity to undertake such comparisons and to have an independent appraisal of the laboratory’s data compared to reference values (or other performance criteria) or to the performance of similar laboratories. The results such participation provide laboratory managers with either a confirmation that the laboratory’s performance is satisfactory or an alert that investigation of potential problems within the laboratory is required.

Accreditation provides users of these schemes (such as INAS laboratories, regulatory bodies, INAS technical assessors) with increased confidence that the schemes are being operated competently in accordance with specified technical and management system requirements. INAS has accredited PT schemes in the following areas:

* Plant health
* Animal Health
* Human body fluids
* Forensics
* Gases and Emissions
* Food and Water
* Healthcare
* Waste Water
* Soils
* Toys
* Pharmaceuticals
* Jewellery
* Cosmetics
* Legionella