Interlaboratory Proficiency Trials

The aim of Proficiency Testing or Interlaboratory Trials is to achieve standardisation of laboratory performance. The large number of participants in the ENERSOL trials provide an extensive body of data against which participating laboratories can assess their performance.

The ENERSOL Interlaboratory Trial of Condom Testing Laboratories, which was originally carried out for the World Health Organisation in the early 1990s, started with 31 participants in 1995 and since 2001 has had more than 60 participants each year. The ENERSOL condom trial covers all tests in major international standards and the WHO condom Specification, and wherever practical - new and proposed tests are included. A glove trial has been operating since 1998, and the number of participants also increases each year. These trials are available to all laboratories who test condoms and gloves, including manufacturers, government regulatory authorities and independent laboratories. Participation also assists those laboratories and manufacturers that already have, or are seeking laboratory accreditation or certification, where participation in such trials is a requirement of accreditation.

Confidentiality of results is a feature of the ENERSOL Interlaboratory trials, lab codes assigned to each participant to identify its own results only.