QCMD

quality control for molecular diagnostics (qcmd) evolved from the successful european union concerted action programmes which were initiated in the early 1990s to address quality control within the clinical diagnosis of viral meningitis and encephalitis. the qc programmes were expanded in 1998 through the establishment of a european union funded project quality control concerted action (eu-qcca). this enabled the issues of quality and standardisation to be reviewed in the wider context of diagnostic clinical virology and microbiology through the provision of qc material, proficiency testing (pt) or external quality assesment (eqa), and concensus best practice approaches. the eu-qcca established a very successful international network and educational eqa scheme. one of the principal objectives of the eu-qcca was to provide a mechanism for the long-term continuation of the international programmes. qcmd was founded in 2001 to continue and expand the work as an independent provider of ext