Coagulation testing is commonly performed in hospital systems to screen for potential bleeding or thrombotic disorders. Examples of patient populations and clinical applications include outpatients presenting to the emergency room with signs of venous thromboembolism (VTE), perioperative screening to exclude the potential for bleeding during surgery, or to monitor inpatient anticoagulant treatment. Newly acquired coagulation testing instruments require an extensive validation process before being used for live patient testing in order to ensure quality of test results. Instrument validation can be especially challenging for different hospitals within a health network, due to different testing menus, volumes, and instruments used in these centers. The webinar will provide guidance on how coagulation testing instruments are validated, test results verified, and ensuring continuous quality during the life of the instruments.

Learning objectives:

• Describe the responsibility of the laboratory during the validation process of new instrumentation 
• Distinguish between validation and verification of laboratory instrumentation
• Present strategies for ensuring continuous quality of laboratory testing results on a daily basis, focusing on hemostasis testing