In current age where laboratories desire to have a best in class automation and Quality Control to attain Analytical excellence, preanalytical stage is still ignored in most cases, owing to lack of expertise, dearth of uniform protocols and practices across various cross-sections of laboratories. Clinical laboratories invest considerable time and effort in maintaining Quality Control programs, participating in laboratory Accreditations, and complying with government regulations. In addition, significant advances in laboratory instrumentation and automation have improved the accuracy, reproducibility, and overall quality of the analytic phase. Contrary to popular belief, and perhaps as a consequence of the focus on technological improvements, it is actually the preanalytical phase where most errors occur.

As illustrated by - Plebani and Carraro , who performed a large comprehensive study that determined - of all errors detected - 68.2% originated in the preanalytical phase, compared with 18.5% in the postanalytic phase, and 13.3% during the analytic phase. A fact that the Preanalytical phase involves maximum human intervention and has negligible automation makes it even more prone to errors. Also, all the international studies have reinforced the fact that Preanalytical stage contributes to almost 60-70% of errors occurring in clinical Laboratories. This gave birth to debate among laboratories to adapt best Preanalytical Quality Control practices, specified assessments, continuous training and innovative product solutions to address the current concerns related to Preanalytical stage.