External Quality Assessment (EQA) program is a tool for examining and improving the quality and reliability of tests in clinical laboratories. With that, does participating in an External Quality Assessment (EQA) programs directly improve analytical quality?
This question is rather vague. If you are an assessor, your analytical abilities should be above par. But if you are the program, the comments from the assessors will provide a wide and constructive purview and degree of whether your program meets the criteria in terms of approaches, deployment, learning, and integration (ADLI) of core processes., protocols, policies & systems, an the results Levels, Trends, comparisons, & integrations (LeTCI). BUT whether you or the programs "learn" is dependent on your conscientious efforts to improve & innovate.