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European Metrology Network for Laboratory Medicine

31.03.2020

Under the auspices of PTB, twelve European metrology institutes have begun establishing a coordinated and service-oriented European infrastructure for metrology in the field of laboratory medicine: Under EURAMET’s responsibility, they founded the European Metrology Network “Traceability in Laboratory Medicine1.

The participants of the European Metrology Network “Traceability in Laboratory Medicine” kick-off meeting at PTB in June 2019

New European directives such as Ordinance (EU) 2017/746 place stricter demands on the metrological traceability of in vitro diagnostics. This requires a close, transnational collaboration of all the participating institutes among each other and intensive communication with national and international cooperation partners. This is the only way to secure and further expand the metrological traceability of laboratory medicine measurands. For this, both economic and clinical aspects must be regulated across borders. The newly founded network is to serve as a central contact point to coordinate services and research activities.

 

Renowned national and international interest groups have already signaled their willingness to support the network. These include, for example, clinical chemistry reference laboratories that are prepared to make their infrastructure and long-term experience available for carrying out comparison measurements, but also international organizations (IFCC, JCTLM, BIPM) with which the initial steps toward shared coordination have already been agreed.

1 www.euramet.org/laboratory-medicine