How to judge the quality of a PT scheme that is included in the EPTIS database? EPTIS provides a couple of instruments to help you make a proper selection.
The international guide on the quality of PT schemes is ISO/IEC Guide 43-1. EPTIS asks PT providers who wish to include their schemes in the database to answer a well-considered set of questions that are extracted from the ISO Guide. The resulting answers are quality statements and they are contained in EPTIS – for every single PT scheme included. You can access this information by clicking the "Further information" button on every summary sheet (the basic information on a PT scheme that is displayed to you after a database query). Please notice that these quality statements are based on a self-declaration of the provider, and are not necessarily complete.
EPTIS has attached a quality label to PT schemes included in the EPTIS database. This label is contained in every summary sheet (the basic information on a PT scheme that is displayed to you after a database query). The PT providers' answers can include three types of "review":
of the PT provider to operate a specific PT scheme. We are very grateful to ILAC for co-financing the implementation of this new quality label in the EPTIS database.
The degree of comparability of selected European PT schemes has been studied in detail in the recently finalised CoEPT project. There appears to be no significant effect of the different statistical protocols used in terms of assigned values. However, there are significant differences in how the PT providers rate the laboratory performance. Thus, laboratories who intend to subscribe to a new scheme should be aware of the provider's rating policy. This information is included for a large part of the PT schemes in the "additional information" section – see above. Read more on the CoEPT project here.
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