Quality assurance for point-of-care diagnostic testing: It is not negotiable

This special issue of the African Journal of Laboratory Medicine (AJLM) is dedicated to quality assurance for in vitro diagnostics (IVDs), which encompasses all aspects of the quality management of diagnostic testing, including quality control of the testing process as well as monitoring and control of the outcomes of that process, which are designed to ensure that test results are as accurate as possible. External quality assessment is an important element of this system and is the focus of most of the articles in this supplement.