The Centre for Genomic Pathogen Surveillance in conjunction with National Collection of Type Cultures (NCT), Public Health England, has produced a pilot EQA comprised of 16 bacterial strains (in duplicate) covering gram positive and negative species and some major resistances. These samples are sent blinded and participants will send back
- Presumptive species based on both microbiology and genomics alone
- AST results and the antimicrobial sensitivity/resistance interpretations based on these results
- Genomic determinants present and likely to confer antimicrobial resistance and, based on these, those antimicrobials to which resistance is predicted.

The first pilot is currently underway. Check back here in Mid November 2020 for progress