CLSI Publishes New Guideline For Autoverification Of Clinical Laboratory Test Results

Wayne, PA - With increasing pressure to maintain adequate turnaround time and to enhance the quality of results, clinical laboratories must develop new methods for increasing productivity with limited resources. Automated verification, or autoverification, has emerged as a tool for laboratories whose goal is to streamline their laboratory processes while maintaining the highest quality standards.

Autoverification of Clinical Laboratory Test Results; Approved Guideline (AUTO10-A), recently published by Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI, formerly NCCLS), provides a general framework that will allow each laboratory to easily design, implement, validate, and customize rules for autoverification based on the needs of its own patient population. In addition, important supporting sections are provided that deal with the different aspects of regulatory compliance and validation of algorithms that are essential to establishing and maintaining a modern autoverification system.

According to William Neeley, MD, FACP, DABCC, Detroit Medical Center, University Laboratories, autoverifcation has many benefits for laboratories. Neeley says, "The AUTO10-A document gives the user the tools to develop algorithms or rules based on medical experience, which can be applied to each and every result. It is as if a highly competent director is personally reviewing every result that is coming out of the laboratory – but it is all done automatically." He adds, "With modern autoverification, rules are written into the software so the technologist does not have to memorize every idiosyncrasy. It enables one to practice medicine more easily and much more consistently."

AUTO10-A is intended for use by: information system vendors; hospital, reference, independent, and physician office laboratories; data management vendors; instrument manufacturers; and those involved in point-of-care testing.

AUTO10-A is one of a series of eleven different CLSI-approved documents that address individual portions of an automated laboratory system.

SOURCE: Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute