The seventh and final article in the Pathology in Practice series by Stephen MacDonald on individual aspects of the assessment of uncertainty of measurement will provide an example of how to set, assess and review measurement uncertainty (MU) in any situation in the laboratory.
The aim of the final article, which will appear in the June issue, is to summarise all the information covered in the preceding six articles. In doing so, the reader will have the skills to set, assess and review measurement uncertainty in any situation in the clinical pathology laboratory. It is applied here in a commonly encountered scenario – the implementation of a new assay.
However, the standards by which assessment should be undertaken are still very much in their infancy, and choosing how to determine if MU is acceptable is something users will come to terms with better after using MU for longer.