The role of European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine Working Group for Preanalytical Phase in standardization and harmonization of the preanalytical phase in Europe
Open accessAbstract
Patient safety is a leading challenge in healthcare and from the laboratory perspective it is now well established that preanalytical errors are the major contributor to the overall rate of diagnostic and therapeutic errors. To address this, the European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine Working Group for Preanalytical Phase (EFLM WG-PRE) was established to lead in standardization and harmonization of preanalytical policies and practices at a European level. One of the key activities of the WG-PRE is the organization of the biennial EFLM-BD conference on the preanalytical phase to provide a forum for National Societies (NS) to discuss their issues. Since 2012, a year after the first Preanalytical phase conference, there has been a rapid growth in the number of NS with a working group engaged in preanalytical phase activities and there are now at least 19 countries that have one. As a result of discussions with NS at the third conference held in March 2015 five key areas were identified as requiring harmonisation. These were test ordering, sample transport and storage, patient preparation, sampling procedures and management of unsuitable specimens. The article below summarises the work that has and will be done in these areas. The goal of this initiative is to ensure the EFLM WG-PRE produces work that meets the needs of the European laboratory medicine community. Progress made in the identified areas will be updated at the next preanalytical phase conference and show that we have produced guidance that has enhanced standardisation in the preanalytical phase and improved patient safety throughout Europe.
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- Authors
- Cornes, M. P., Church, S., van Dongen-Lases, E., Grankvist, K., Guimarães, J. T., Ibarz, M., Kovalevskaya, S., Kristensen, G. B., Lippi, G., Nybo, M., Sprongl, L., Sumarac, Z., Simundic, A.-M., & on behalf of the Working Group for Preanalytical Phase (WG-PRE) and European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFLM)
- Affiliations
- New Cross Hospital (GB)
- BD Life Sciences – Preanalytical Systems, Oxford, UK
- Department of Clinical Chemistry, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Umeå University (SE)
- Universidade do Porto (PT)
- Laboratori Clínic Hospital Arnau de Vilanova, Lleida, Spain
- First Pavlov State Medical University of St. Petersburg (RU)
- The Norwegian EQA Program (NKK), Bergen, Norway
- University of Verona (IT)
- Odense University Hospital (DK)
- Central Laboratory, Hospital Sumperk, Sumperk, Czech Republic
- Center for Medical Biochemistry, Clinical Center of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia
- Department of Medical Laboratory Diagnostics, Clinical Hospital Sveti Duh, Zagreb, Croatia
- ORCID
- Venue
- Annals of Clinical Biochemistry: International Journal of Laboratory Medicine
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2016-07-20
- Volume
- 53
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 539-547
- ISSN
- 0004-5632 (ISSN-L)
- 1758-1001
- OpenAlex
- W2344061850
- Cited by
- 43
- References
- 46
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 0.93
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- pure.amsterdamumc.nl
- Locations
- Annals of Clinical Biochemistry International Journal of Laboratory Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- University of Southern Denmark Research Portal (University of Southern Denmark) (publishedVersion)
- Pure Amsterdam UMC (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology (RCAAP Project by FCT) (submittedVersion)
- INFM-OAR (INFN Catania) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) (other-oa)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Clinical Laboratory Practices and Quality Control
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Emergency Medical Services › Patient Safety and Medication Errors
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Clinical Biochemistry › Bacterial Identification and Susceptibility Testing
- Keywords
- pre-analytical phase, pre-analytical errors, standardization, harmonization, patient safety, test ordering, sample storage and transport, patient preparation, sampling methods, national societies, diagnostic errors
- MeSH terms
- Blood Chemical Analysis, Chemistry, Clinical, Europe, Humans, Reference Standards, Societies, Medical, Practice Guidelines as Topic
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