A2LA offers accreditation for inspection bodies and proficiency testing providers.

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Accreditation verifies that certain organizations have the competence and impartiality to perform specific activities for the testing field. A2LA’s scope includes accrediting inspection bodies and proficiency testing providers. An inspection body is an organization that independently conducts inspections to verify compliance with standards, so accrediting them shows they perform evaluations consistently and with technical reliability. Proficiency testing providers run external schemes that challenge labs to assess their performance, and accrediting them ensures their programs are well-designed, statistically sound, and fair. Hospitals, public health laboratories, and research laboratories are entities that perform testing themselves, often under different accreditation schemes for their testing activities, rather than the evaluators or quality-assurance providers described here.