Advanta Laboratories Enrolls in the American College of Physicians’ Medical Laboratory Evaluation Program

Advanta Laboratories Nig. Ltd. announced that it has enrolled in American College of Physicians’ Medical Laboratory Evaluation (MLE) program. MLE provides proficiency testing to ensure the quality of testing in medical laboratories.

Ibadan, Nigeria, March 27, 2009 - Today Advanta Laboratories Nig. Ltd. announced that it has enrolled in American College of Physicians’ Medical Laboratory Evaluation (MLE) program. Advanta Laboratories is a leading provider of diverse laboratory testing services including medical, food, drug, water and environmental testing, will be the first medical laboratory in Nigeria to participate in the program.

“We’re excited about the opportunity to participate in this rigorous evaluation program,” said Dr. Tunde Odusan, Advanta Laboratories, Chief Medical Consultant. “This is just one example of Advanta Laboratories’ commitment to providing high quality services to our patients.”

As part of their enrollment, Advanta Laboratories has already submitted the results for the first of three rounds of testing that MLE will use to evaluate the laboratory’s proficiency.

“Using the external form of multilaboratory comparison, through a program like MLE, is the most cost-effective and safe mechanism for checking your laboratory performance,” said Marcia Boyd, MLE’s customer service and international relations supervisor.

The MLE program uses three rounds of testing, over the course of a year to determine laboratory performance. The testing involves sending unknown samples with a range of analyte levels to participating laboratories and evaluating how closely the laboratory’s testing results match the samples sent. Once the evaluation has been completed MLE’s medical technologists work closely with participating laboratories via Advanta Laboratories to increase their success. The program provides laboratories with clear, easy-to-understand tools that are available online and include the reporting of results, participant summaries and evaluation reports. These tools combined with the personal attention to explaining them allow participating laboratories to more effectively make improvements that enhance patient care.

MLE is a U.S.-based service of the American College of Physicians (ACP) that provides Proficiency Testing (PT) services for laboratories where diagnostic testing that involves drawing blood or other bodily fluids is performed. The program currently provides services for both public and private clinical laboratories in 20 countries and is looking to expand, including with additional laboratories in Nigeria. Information about the program is available online at: http://www.acponline.org/running_practice/mle/.

ACP is the U.S.’s largest medical specialty organization. Membership is composed of 126,000 internal medicine physicians (internists) and medical students. Internists provide the majority of health care to adults in America. Internists are specialists in adult medicine and provide comprehensive care to adult patients.
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