EQAS programmers in India: list, fees and how to enroll

What EQAS is, and why NABL insists on it

External Quality Assessment (EQAS), also called proficiency testing (PT), checks your accuracy against other labs. A provider sends the same unknown samples to many labs; each lab tests them like patient samples and reports results; the provider compares every lab with the group and sends back a score.

Internal QC tells you whether your analyzer is stable today. EQAS tells you whether you’re getting the right answer. A lab can have perfect internal QC and still be biased against everyone else.

For NABL, it’s mandatory. NABL 163 (Policy for Participation in Proficiency Testing Activities) requires:

• At least one satisfactory PT or EQA in each discipline before accreditation (clause 3.1)
• At least one PT or EQA a year in each discipline for accredited medical labs, plus a two-year PT plan (clause 3.3)
• Root-cause corrective action within one month of an unsatisfactory result (clause 3.6). Two poor results in a row can lead to reduced scope.

NABL 112A, the specific criteria for ISO 15189:2022 published in December 2024, also asks for EQA when you change method or equipment or add tests to your scope.

EQAS programmes for Indian medical labs

These are the main schemes Indian labs use. Many labs combine an Indian scheme for haematology or microbiology with an international scheme for biochemistry and immunoassays.

How to choose and enrol

1. List your tests by discipline: haematology, biochemistry, immunoassay, microbiology, serology, cytology, histopathology, clinical pathology.
2. Match each discipline to a scheme, preferring providers accredited to ISO/IEC 17043. NABL treats these as competent.
3. Check analyte coverage. Make sure the scheme includes your actual tests, not just the discipline.
4. Enrol before the cycle starts. AIIMS EQAP takes 2–3 months to issue a lab code; IAMM needs enrolment at least 15 days before a cycle; IAC registration closes on 28 February.
5. Write a two-year PT plan showing which scheme covers which test, and keep it in your quality manual.

Reading your EQAS report

Most reports score each result with a z-score or SDI (standard deviation index): how many standard deviations your result is from the group mean.

Look across cycles too. Results drifting to one side, even within limits, point to a calibration bias before it becomes a failure.

What to do when you fail an EQAS round

1. Rule out clerical errors first: wrong units, transposed digits, wrong sample number or wrong method code. RIQAS reports these as a common cause.
2. Re-test the EQAS sample if you still have it and the failure is isolated.
3. Look for systematic causes: calibration, reagent lot, analyzer maintenance, pipettes, staff technique and sample handling.
4. Check patient results run in the same period and correct reports if needed.
5. Record the corrective action with evidence, within a month for NABL, and watch the next cycles.

Internal QC records help here. If your Levey-Jennings charts showed a shift before the EQAS failure, you’ve found your cause.

When there’s no EQAS for a test

For tests without a PT scheme (NABL 112A gives examples such as blood gases, ammonia and G6PD), NABL accepts alternatives, roughly in this order:

1. Sample exchange with other labs (inter-laboratory comparison)
2. Peer-group comparison of internal QC results
3. Testing a different calibrator or trueness-control lot
4. Split or blind testing
5. Reference materials
6. Clinical correlation
7. Retained or repository samples
8. Replicate testing
9. Reference methods

For clinical pathology, stool and semen tests without PT, NABL 112A asks for split-sample comparison every three months.