S EC TI O N 2
ACCUR AC Y A ND
PRECISION
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WHAT IS ACCURACY?
Accuracy is the ability to get the right answer.
Think of an archer shooting arrows at a target. The archer wants his arrow to hit the center of
the target to get the best score. He loses points when he is not in the center. The farther from the
center the fewer points he gets until, if he misses the target altogether, he gets no points. This is
accuracy: the ability to hit the center of the target.
In the laboratory, accuracy is the ability to get the right answer, whether we are analyzing a
patient’s sample or a control sample. If the control sheet says that we should have a result of “x”,
if everything is operating properly we would expect to get this result, or very close to it. A little bit
of variation is normal and expected.
WHAT IS PRECISION?
Precision is the ability to get the same answer, over and over.
Consider our archer again. He does not want to hit the center of the target just once, he wants to
hit it every time. His archery is said to be precise if all of the arrows are close together.
In our case, we want all of the control results to be close together. As with accuracy, a little bit of
variation (or, to get technical, imprecision) is normal. Your control limits will tell you how much is
allowed.
UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ACCURACY AND
PRECISION
Now that we know what accuracy and precision are, we need to be sure we understand that they
are not the same. Let’s look at four examples:
ACCURATE AND PRECISE
If all of the arrows are in the center of the target and close together, the results are both accurate
and precise. If your control results are near the target values, and they are all close to each other,
your instrument system is also accurate and precise (Figure 1a).
ACCURATE, BUT NOT PRECISE
If instead, the archer’s shots are in the middle of the target but not very close to each other, he is
accurate but not precise (we say that he is experiencing imprecision) (Figure 1b).
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PRECISE, BUT NOT ACCURATE
Our archer shoots again. This time all of the arrows are very close to each other, but nowhere near
the center of the target. This is an example of inaccuracy, but good precision. Before shooting
again, our archer may need to adjust his sights; we might say he needs to recalibrate (Figure 1c).
NOT ACCURATE OR PRECISE
Finally, if someone who had never used a bow before were asked to shoot at the target, the results
probably would not be anywhere near the center, or even near each other. This would be an
example of both a lack of accuracy and precision (Figure 1d).
ACCURATE AND PRECISE ACCURATE, BUT NOT PRECISE PRECISE, BUT NOT ACCURATE NOT ACCURATE OR PRECISE
Figure 1a Figure 1b Figure 1c Figure 1d
Figure 1. Illustration of the difference between accuracy and precision
ACCURACY AND PRECISION IN THE L ABORATORY
Why is it important to understand these four situations? Obviously, it is not because we all want
to become expert archers. Each of the scenarios above describes a different situation that can
occur when you are performing QC. Understanding what causes each situation makes it easier
to know the proper corrective action, should your controls be “out”. Additionally, knowing these
two basic concepts helps us understand the statistics that are normally used in the laboratory for
monitoring performance. We will discuss each situation in more detail in the following section.
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