A procedure for estimating bias between quantitative analytical methods

Before quality control techniques and protocols can be applied to a laboratory procedure, the quality itself must be evaluated. This involves among other considerations an assessment of analytical accuracy. Some, but not all (and perhaps not even many), clinical laboratory analytical procedures can be considered accurate in the sense that every laboratory should get the same quantitative result for the analyte in question, regardless of the composition of the sample medium (for example potassium). That most methods are to one degree or another inaccurate does not invalidate their use. But the burden is on the laboratory, in choosing a method, to knowjust how accurate that method is.