Tools, Technologies and Training for Healthcare Laboratories

Pop Quiz: Do you suffer from Low QC?

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS [with apologies in advance*]

IsItLowQC

Take the "Low QC" Quiz to see if your laboratory is suffering from this new condition...

  • Do you have a decrease in your desire to QC?
  • Do you have a general lack of energy at work caused by QC?
  • Have you noticed a decrease in your enjoyment of life, possibly due to QC?
  • Are you sad and/or grumpy about QC?
  • Has there been a recent deterioration in your ability to trouble-shoot QC?

Answers, after the jump...

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  144 Hits

NY: Glucose Meters Going Off-Label?

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

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  134 Hits

Reducing Readmissions: Can the Lab Help?

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

Laboratories in the US probably already know this: their healthcare institutions are getting hit with fines from CMS due to excessive 30-day readmission rates for three conditions:

  • (AMI) Acute myocardial infarction
  • (HF) Heart Failure
  • Pneumonia patients

CMS is imposing increasing fines for hospitals that have excessive readmissions. Guess how many hospitals have been fined - and how much money they've had to pay back...

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  165 Hits

Losing ground on HbA1c

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

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  163 Hits

Westgard in the News: Shaking up QC Frequency

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

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  234 Hits

NY Times Editorial Focuses on Failures in Medical Device Regulation

A recent New York Times Sunday editorial focused on the deplorable state of medical device regulation. We simply can no longer trust FDA clearances, particularly 510ks:

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  152 Hits

Method Validation Matters

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

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  136 Hits

Theranos: a postmortem

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

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  115 Hits

Coming to Helsinki, February 7-8

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

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  114 Hits

Univants of Healthcare Excellence Award

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
An opportunity to demonstrate your patient impact! If we face the reality that the laboratory future must involve a closer interaction with clinical care and outcomes, here's an award that focuses on that very thing. Demonstrate how your lab results improve care and benefit patients, and your healthcare organization will receive and award from a consortium of AACC, IFCC, HIMSS, Modern Healthcare and more: https://lnkd.in/dGBz5Fq hashtagUnivants hashtaglabfuture
[full disclosure: this award is sponsored in part by Abbott Diagnostics, a company with which Westgard QC has business.]
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  109 Hits

Theranos finally bleeds out...

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

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  162 Hits

Sometimes, it's just fun

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

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  147 Hits

In the news: wrong result lands mother in jail, child in protective services

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

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  138 Hits

Coming soon to a Chicago near you: Booth 1823

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

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  99 Hits

The 2018 Lab Limerick Winners!

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

As several people know, the highlight of the Antwerp Quality in the Spotlight conference is not the Westgard Award, but the "Limerick Challenge" of the evening dinner.

In 2016, there was a scandalous episode of nepotism, which resulted in the winning team containing not only myself ("a" Westgard) but also Jochem Goldschmidt ("a" Goldschmidt, son of the conference organizer). Thus, we received lifetime bans from participating in future Limerick contests. And founds ourselves running the Limerick as Quiz Masters this year.

Since the overall theme of the conference this year was "next generation" - that, too, became the theme of the Limerick contest.

Antwerp-2018-Limerick

Here myself and Jochem on the right are presenting the prize (a bottle of champagne, to be consumed that evening)

After the jump... the winners and the winning limerick

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  129 Hits

Theranos loses its head

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

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  120 Hits

ICYMI: Theranos receives last minute transfusion

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

Theranos300

Remember in 2017 when there were predictions that Theranos wouldn't last out the year?

It appears reports of Theranos' death were greatly exaggerated... or maybe not

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  135 Hits

Consumer Reports joins the chorus on Biotin warnings

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS  [first posted on LinkedIn]

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  133 Hits

In memoriam: on the passing of "Evidence-based" and Science-based" discussion

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

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  128 Hits

Can you find "American Sickness" in the laboratory?

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

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  148 Hits

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