Sigma Verification of Performance Program

On May 27th, the member labs of the Westgard Sigma Verification of Performance Program gathered for its first annual meeting in Singapore.

Joined by distinguished and accomplished speakers, Dr. Elizabeth Y. Arcellana-Nuqui of The Medical City Hospital of Manila, Philippines, Dr. Navapun Charuruks of Bumrungrad International Hospital of Thailand, and Director Li-Ching Wu of Chi-Mei Medical Center, Taiwan, who discussed their achievements of Sigma VP as well as their additional advances in training, technology, and applications of Six Sigma.

Dr. James O. Westgard, Ph.D. led a meeting of nearly a dozen laboratories from Southeast Asia, where best practices were discussed and shared, and collaboration research topics were proposed.

Among just a few of the findings of the meeting:

• A majority of the VP labs were able to not only benchmark their methods using Six Sigma, they were also able to implement changes to their QC design
• Of those labs that changed their QC, the vast majority of them were able to reduce their QC and calibration expenses as well as reduce their labor they devote to trouble-shooting.
• A majority of VP labs want to expand the verification to cover immunoassay and hematology testing
• A majority of VP labs want to encourage their national regulatory agencies to include Sigma-metrics among the required Quality Indicators

 It was our honor to host this meeting and exchange with the Sigma VP laboratories. Together we hope to move quality even further ahead.