Posted by Sten Westgard, MLO
In the November 2012 MLO magazine there is an intriguing article by Roy Midyett, a hematology supervisor, titled "Empty QC"
Here's how Mr. Midyett defines "Empty QC":
"Empty QC is any nominal QC that does not give techs performing the
test any more confidence than they would have without the QC, and has by
logic or experience, no influence on the reporting of the test."
Is Mr. Midyett correct? Have our QC procedures become meaningless gestures? More after the jump.
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Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
I recently got a smart question from a concerned laboratory scientist. After reviewing one of the Sigma-metric studies on the website, he noted that while a particular method had a bad Sigma-metric, the main reason was due to the bias. His question was essentially (and I am paraphrasing here), "If the bias component comes from a particular difference between the instrument or kit and a reference system, shouldn't it be excluded from the Sigma-metric calculation?"
The reasoning is that the bias problem could be (1) eliminated through recalibration, (2) it may be a bias against a method that is not a reference method, so the difference might not be "real", or (3) if the reference range is adjusted and the method is used in exclusion, bias doesn't matter anyway.
We've had a lot of discussion about bias in our statistics lately. Is this a case where the Sigma-metric is "skewed"? What's your verdict? A discussion after the jump.
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Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
During the AACC/ASCLS convention in July, we had a "live" raffle for those who attended the convention, as well as an online raffle, for those who couldn't.
Time to announce the winners...
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Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
So here's a Normalized Method Decision chart for a cholesterol method.
Which method would you choose?
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Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
In the run-up to the AACC/ASCLS conference in Los Angeles, you may have seen a notice about a free book giveaway. For the first 150 people to come to the SeraCare booth at the Laboratory Exposition, they would receive a free book of their choice (from among the three possible titles: Basic QC Practices, Basic Method Validation, and Six Sigma Risk Analysis).
The line to get books, Tuesday Morning of the AACC/ASCLS conference
We expected the event to last the entire day. Do you want to guess how long it actually took before all the books were gone?
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Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
Dr. Westgard had the pleasure of taking part in the Bio-Rad industry workshop on July 17th, which was focused on Quality Control for the Future - Risk Management EP23 for Laboratories.
Can you guess what Dr. Westgard had to say?
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