1.
Full
Members of EQALM are non-profit organisations (which
can appoint individuals) for External Quality Assurance - EQAssurance (see Note
1) - programs in laboratory medicine, which have national or substantial
regional (see Note 2) coverage in European countries (as defined by WHO). They
have a strong liaison with the medical laboratory profession by including them
in their steering committee or board.
2.
EQA organisations (defined in Note 1) from outside of Europe
may be admitted to membership at the discretion of the Board. EQALM
may accept individuals interested in external quality assessment/assurance as
individual members and organisations (either commercial or international)
conducting EQA schemes as Associate
Members. The Board may also
invite individuals to become Honorary
Members in recognition of their contribution to the field of EQA or service
to EQALM.
3.
EQALM provides a forum for co-operation and exchange of knowledge about
quality-related matters especially with regard to external quality assessment/assurance
programs. It may establish projects on topics of common interest according to an
agreed work program approved by the General Assembly. Examples of ways of
co-operating are :
Organising
meetings with scientific or practical themes for members and other
interested parties.
Establishing
working groups to address scientific matters.
Issuing
scientific publications, including books.
Issuing
news sheets, or editing a section of EQAnews or other journal(s).
Developing
EQA projects.
Compiling
Internet resources
4.
EQALM intends to obtain recognition from European scientific associations
within laboratory medicine and with national and international organisations of
the diagnostic industry.
5.
EQALM will meet minimum once a year. One of these meetings will serve as
a General Assembly and shall be convened by mail three months in advance.
6.
EQALM will appoint at its General Assembly through a simple majority of
votes amongst those full members present, a Chairman, a Secretary a Treasurer and
two members for a three-year period of office. The mandate is renewable for a
maximum of one new period.
The
Board will:-
keep
a register of existing members and approve new members,
review
the membership by evaluation of the statutes of members once every three
year.
keep
the membership informed of its activities by mail and other appropriate
means, and make an
annual report at the General Assembly.
7.
EQALM will charge a membership fee to cover the cost of secretarial work,
mailing and telephone charges. It may also request money from grant-awarding
institutions for agreed purposes).
8.
If EQALM is wound up, its assets will be employed to realize the same
purposes as set out in these statutes.
9.
Revised statutes must be submitted to and approved by
the general assembly.
10.
The legal domicile of EQALM is situated in Geneva, Switzerland.
Notes
Note
1. EQAssurance is an activity
conducted by an independent non-profit body performing interlaboratory test
comparisons including method-performance studies, laboratory-performance
studies, educational laboratory-performance studies with or without proficiency
testing and other external quality improvement activities. The body should not
be involved in the preparation, distribution or sale of reagents or analytical
systems.
Note
2. Regional EQA scheme organisations of non-profit making bodies with more
than 100 participants may become Full Members of EQALM.
Explanation of terms used in Note 1.
Interlaboratory test comparison : Organisation, performance and
evaluation of tests on the same or similar test items by two or more
laboratories in accordance with predetermined conditions (ISO/IEC Guide 2:1991).
A method-performance study : Assessment of the performance
characteristics of a method of analysis (IUPAC 1992).
A laboratory-performance study : Assessment of the performance of
laboratory(ies) or analyst(s) (IUPAC 1992).
Laboratory proficiency testing* : Determination of laboratory
testing performance by means of interlaboratory comparisons (ISO/IEC Guide
2:1996).
Educational laboratory performance study : Problem-related external
quality assessment assisting participants to gain information on the origin of
aberrant results and determine appropriate remedial procedures.
External quality improvement activities
Influence
laboratories by demonstrating poor results due to other sources of error
than measurement uncertainty, eg inappropriate measurement units,
inappropriate reference interval, and inappropriate statistics.
Influence
laboratories through the provision of advice, training courses, development
and production of selected calibrators etc.
Support
for internal quality control.
*
Note that the terms 'Proficiency Testing' and 'External Quality Assessment' are
often used synonymously.
The
above Constitution is Copyright EQALM 2003 - all rights reserved.