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Title: TDRM workshop on reference materials at the AOAC Annual Meeting 2015: How do I set up proper inter-laboratory comparison with testing materials I have prepared myself?

Author
item BUDIN, JOHN - Consultant
item EMTEBORG, HAKAN - European Commission-Joint Research Centre (JRC)
item FOX, ARLENE - Consultant
item ANDREWS, KAREN - University Of Maryland
item WEITZEL, JANE - Consultant
item RETTINGER, MITZI - Consultant
item ZINK, DONNA - Consultant

Submitted to: Accreditation and Quality Assurance: Journal for Quality, Comparability and Reliability in Chemical Measurement
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/15/2016
Publication Date: 3/15/2016
Citation: Budin, J., Emteborg, H., Fox, A., Andrews, K., Weitzel, J., Rettinger, M., Zink, D. 2016. TDRM workshop on reference materials at the AOAC Annual Meeting 2015: How do I set up proper inter-laboratory comparison with testing materials I have prepared myself?. Accreditation and Quality Assurance: Journal for Quality, Comparability and Reliability in Chemical Measurement. 23: 542-555.

Interpretive Summary: This workshop was prepared and conducted by the Technical Division on Reference Materials (TDRM) of the AOAC and was the fifth in a in a series following “It’s an Emergency! We Need a Reference Material Now! Key Learnings About Reference Materials from Past Emergencies (2014), “Building the use of certified reference materials into dispute resolution (2013), ‘‘The use of reference materials to enable accuracy/trueness in analytical method validation/verification’’ (2012) and ‘‘Reference materials in laboratory accreditation’’ (2011). At the 2015 AOAC Annual Meeting in Los Angeles, this workshop was held to address a common problem for many laboratories: the need for a specific reference material when one is not commercially available and hence has to be prepared in-house. The workshop discussed how to set up a proper inter-laboratory comparison with testing materials that have been prepared within the laboratory. One should consider the use of a test sample that allows for the measurement of more than one analyte. A multi-analyte test sample is cost efficient provided that sufficient knowledge and experience is available for all analytes with respect to homogeneity and stability. Ensure that sample preparation and testing instructions are clear so to minimize reasons for poor performance. The amount of variation obtained will give a panoramic sense of performance of the program and the z-value can give an indication of an individual participant's performance. The consensus values generated might not be representative of the true value, but the approach could still identify outliers and poor performance. The cost of developing an inter-laboratory reference material can be justified to senior management by pointing out that the cost would be lower than the cost of reputation damage due to inaccurate results.

Technical Abstract: same as summary