Statistical Rules for Laboratory Networks

Within the definition of reference methods, laboratory networks and interlaboratory studies play an important role.To maintain the quality of the results statistical rules for quality control need to be defined. In this note we review statistical rules for the evaluation of laboratories participating in interlaboratory studies as well as data evaluation rules for the calculation of consensus means.The practicality of the derived rules is elaborated for a number of recent HbA1c interlaboratory studies