The fifth in the series of articles on individual aspects of the assessment of uncertainty of measurement is scheduled for publication in the February issue of Pathology in Practice, and will see Stephen MacDonald consider some of the more difficult questions that may be faced in relation to measurement uncertainty
In the previous article in this series (November 2017 issue, page 19) he discussed how to calculate imprecision uncertainty as the determinant of measurement uncertainty (MU). However, when other contributory factors are identified, a method of combining and defining the relationships between them is needed, and assay modelling (May 2017 issue, page 24) can help to produce this combined uncertainty for each measurand.
Articles in this series include: 1) Measurand: the first step to measurement uncertainty evaluation (Pathology in Practice 2017 Feb; 18 [1]: 13–6); 2) Assay modelling: the next step in measurement uncertainty evaluation (Pathology in Practice 2017 May; 18 [2]: 24–7); 3) Standard uncertainty, the building block of measurement uncertainty (Pathology in Practice 2017 Aug; 18 [3]: 29 –32); and 4) Internal quality control as the means of determining measurement uncertainty (Pathology in Practice 2017 Nov; 18 [4]: 19 –23).