Analysis

The process is fully auto­mated with the par­tic­i­pants enter­ing their results online. Once all results are sub­mit­ted, they are col­lated, ana­lyzed and com­pared. Each par­tic­i­pant then receives a tab­u­lar and graph­i­cal dis­play of the results. A Youden plot show­ing the results from all cen­tres is also pro­vided with the spe­cific posi­tion­ing of the par­tic­i­pat­ing cen­tre being shown in a con­trast­ing colour. The results should lie within a tar­get win­dow (delin­eated by the 2,5 and 97,5 per­centiles) deter­mined from the median val­ues of all par­tic­i­pants who per­form their analy­ses in full com­pli­ance with the WHO rec­om­mended meth­ods. From the posi­tion of its results on the graph, each cen­tre receives a rank­ing for each para­me­ter. At the con­clu­sion of every QuaDeGA trial run, each cen­tre receives a cer­tifi­cate of participation.

The QuaDeGA pro­gramme and its expe­ri­ence over the first ten years are sum­ma­rized in the fol­low­ing article:

  • Mallidis C, Cooper TG, Hel­lenkem­per B, Lablans M, Rück­ert F, Nieschlag E.
    Ten years expe­ri­ence with an exter­nal qual­ity con­trol pro­gram for semen analy­sis. Fer­til­ity and Steril­ity 2012 Sep;98(3):611–616.e4.
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22633256