Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
[This picture is actually from Curitiba, Brazil, the SBAC conference back in late June, at a lecture I gave there on Sigma-metrics. I don't have a picture of my lecture from Atlanta, but there is video.]
I gave a short booth presentation on Best Practices for Sigma-metrics at the Abbott Diagnostics booth during the AACC/ASCLS convention. This is now available online for those interested.
The link, after the jump.
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Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
It's that time of year again, where the usual and not-so-usual suspects of the laboratory world gather and discuss science - mixed in with a healthy dose of commerce. We have just returned (and are still recovering from) the annual AACC/ASCLS meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.
James O. Westgard at the Westgard QC booth for the 2011 AACC/ASCLS exhibition
More pictures and details of the convention after the jump...
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A guest post by Nils Person, PhD, FACB
I recently read the essay "The QC We Really Do" with great interest and found the information very useful. However, there was one topic that I was concerned about. It had to do with re-calibration in response to QC rule failure. The essay indicated that re-calibration is a common response to QC rule failure.... and I am not sure that is a good strategy. .
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Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
The second and third days of the Westgard Workshops 2011 focused on Six Sigma Risk Analysis - quantiative, data-driven Risk Management. CLSI will soon be issuing official guidelines on Risk Analysis for QC (the proposed version of EP23 is available, but the final accepted version is not. The CLSI EP23 guideline is expected to be approved by the end of the summer). But there's no need to wait for CLSI to do Risk Analysis. There are many existing resources for laboratories to utilize and start right now.
Tina Krenc, an expert in FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis), leads a group activity on the use of FMEA for laboratory processes
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Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
The Westgard Workshops 2011 were held in Madison, Wisconsin last week, June 1st through 3rd.
Dr. Westgard discusses a question with participants
The topic for the first day was Six Sigma Metrics and Tools. Six Sigma is well known even in healthcare. We did our first Six Sigma workshop about a decade ago. But some of the calculations and implications of Sigma-metrics, particularly for analytical performance, remain less well known. We covered not only the calculations but also the outcomes - how it can improve QC, reduce repeats, increase error detection, and provide better reporting advice to clinicians.
But even beyond these benefits of Sigma-metrics, there's a simple advantage to using the Sigma scale when discussing errors.
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Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
We live in an era of diminished resources, particularly in healthcare, particularly in the laboratory, and particularly for education and training. The training budgets for labs have been shrinking and shrinking over the years, even as the need for skilled technologists has increased.
Educational institutions have not been able to provide enough (high quality, lost cost) training to fill the need. So the manufacturers and vendors have stepped into this gap, supporting the educational needs of their customers.
Westgard Workshops 2011 could not have been mounted without the generous educational help of our gold sponsors, Bio-Rad Laboratories and Abbott Diagnostics. Randox Laboratories also stepped up and provided a premier sponsorship, which helped us immensely.
Dr. James Westgard, pictured here with representatives of the Premier Workshop Sponsor, Randox Laboratories. At Left, Vinay Naik, National Account Manager, who introduced the workshops. Also pictured here is Lynsey Adams, Scientific Writer.
After the break, you can hear the Westgard Workshops Introduction from Randox...
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