External quality assurance in hematology. The programme of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia.

The Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia introduced a comprehensive national external quality assurance programme (QAP) in hematology in 1979. This now provides regular monthly trials of full blood counting, supplemented by 3-monthly sets of samples for a large variety of other tests for "state of the art" studies, together with case slides for diagnosis for 294 participants. In addition educational supplements are provided, based on one or other aspect of each major quarterly trial. The frequency and variety of tests and analysis of participants' results conform to suggested standards for similar national schemes elsewhere in the world. There is evidence that the programme has helped raise the standards of hematopathology in Australasia and has identified areas which require improvement. It is envisaged that the scheme will satisfy the requirements of state legislation designed to accredit pathology laboratories. Future development should include a refinement of objective methods of scoring performance, especially in areas such as morphology where participants' results cannot readily be expressed numerically.