EZ Rules 3 QC Design Software

2005, perfect bound program manual, software will be provided by download link after customer use verification
ISBN 1-886958-14-9
[PLEASE NOTE: THIS PROGRAM IS AVAILABLE ONLY FOR EDUCATIONAL AND TRAINING USE.] 

Features:

• Easy Interview Mode
• Powerful Form Mode
• Patented Automatic QC Selection of most appropriate control rules for tests
• QC Rule Validation reports for inspections, manuals, and records
• Built-in library of over 100 statistical control rules
• Average of Normals Patient Data control rules
• Three types of quality requirements:
  Analytical Total Error,
  Clinical Decision Interval, and Biological Goals
• Built-in tables of CLIA and other quality requirements

Requirements:

• 50 MB hard disk space PC with
• Windows 95 or higher
• 64 MB RAM or more
• at least 800 x 600 monitor
• printer supported by Windows

Advanced QC Design software from Westgard QC!

EZ Rules^© 3 is advanced, easy-to-use, software that automatically selects the best control rules for your laboratory tests.

If you want to rationally choose QC procedures to meet quality requirements, reduce waste, and increase the error detection of your laboratory methods, EZ Rules^© 3is for you.

• Optimize your QC and reduce repeat runs and false rejects!
• Satisfy CLIA quality requirements -- or any quality requirement!
• Build quality directly into your laboratory methods!

EZ Rules^© 3uses a built-in Automatic QC Selection engine to choose the best control rules for you test. All you need to enter is the method CV, method bias, and (CLIA) quality requirement. Don't know the quality requirement? EZ Rules^© 3has tables of quality requirements for more than 400 analytes. All the CLIA quality requirements are listed, as well as (European) biologic goals, clinical decision intervals, and desirable specifications for quality control derived from biologic variation data.

EZ Rules^© 3 offers the first QC Design program that can create Multistage QC Designs. For tests where performance is less than ideal, multiple QC Designs can be chosen to balance error detection, falsre rejection, and the cost of quality control.

EZ Rules^© 3 allows you to optimize your Patient Data (Average of Normals) QC procedures. Based on test performance characteristics, EZ Rules^© 3 can automatically select the number of "normal" patient samples you need to control a method using the Average of Normals instead of traditional controls.

EZ Rules^© 3 calculates the Sigma Metrics for your tests. You can evaluate the quality you achieve against universal benchmarks. For advanced Quality Management, these metrics are a critical step in the improvement process.

EZ Rules^© 3allows you to create QC Rule Validation reports complete with charts of operating specifications, Critical-Error and Sigma Metrics graphs, and all the relevant method data. For documentation of appropriate control rule selection, there is no better software.

Read a Review

The following appeared in Clinical Chemistry 48, No.3 2002, discussing the first version of EZ Rules^©

EZ Rules from Westgard Quality Corporation is a computer program for automatic selection of quality control (QC) rules that will detect medically important errors. The idea of automatic QC selection is that an appropriate level of QC should be selected for a given situation, neither too little, nor too much.

The program is supplied on a floppy disk, and I observed uncomplicated installation and performance on Windows ® 95, 98, NT and 2000 operating systems.

An interactive dialog forms the basis of program operation. The user is prompted for input concerning method characteristics: imprecision, bias, decision level, and expected rate of instability (three level options) and number of control materials. The expected rate of instability is used by the program to determine the necessary power level for QC rules. Furthermore, the user chooses among three principles for specification of quality requirement: (a) an allowable total error (e.g., according to CLIA proficiency testing criteria); (b) clinical (in the form of the decision interval); or (c) related to biologic variation. The user further selects among control rules on the basis of measurement of control materials (so-called traditional rules) or on patient values (average of normals principle). On the basis of this input, the program suggests an appropriate control rule and number of control measurements. As a supplement to the selected rule, an OPSpecs chart may be viewed with an outline of performance for the selected rule and a set of rules with related performance to the primarily suggested one. Power curves are also presented for the displayed rules for further orientation. Finally, a QC Validation Report with input and calculated parameters, and graphics, is presented that may also be printed.

The program can be used intuitively, and familiarization with the program is aided by three tutorial examples. The manual contains a "Getting Started" section that provides an easy introduction and overview. Subsequent sections, "Learning Program Operation" and "Rule Selection Methodology", give a more general background with an outline of the selection procedure based on the OPSpecs chart concept, partly as excerpts from earlier publications. The final section "Technical Information", contains definitions and computational methods. Tables, which also are available in the online help menu, are provided concerning quality demands (CLIA, clinical and biologic approaches). A listing of the repertoire of control rules is available in the online help menu. These include so-called traditional rules: Levey-Jenning, Westgard multirules, mean and range rules (~70), and patient-based rules (average of normals). Furthermore, extensive literature references are provided; further information is available at http://www.westgard.com

EZ rules represents the latest development of the QC Validator® program series, which in the 2.0 version also provided the option of automatic selection of QC rules. In the present program, the interactive dialog facilitates the procedure and the average of normals control rule principle is a new feature. Although the main point of the program is automated rule selection, an option for the user to evaluate the performance of a specific rule might have been valuable, e.g., to compare a given rule used commonly in a laboratory with the one suggested by the program.

This software, including its associated manual, is user-friendly, provides appropriate instructions, performs well, and is available at a reasonable price.

Kristian Linnet
Laboratory of Clinical Biochemistry
Psychiatric University Hospital
DK-8240 Risskov, Denmark

Download demos presenting actual screenshots and operation.

Westgard QC, Inc. copyright 2008-2013. This software is licensed from Bio-Rad, Inc.

[PLEASE NOTE: EZ RULES 3 IS NOT A CHARTING PROGRAM. IT IS A QC DESIGN PROGRAM.]