Westgard Workshops 2006, Part I

Originally posted on June 12, 2006
First of all, we want to thank all of our participants who came from all directions to learn and share. The most rewarding part of this continuing series is that some of our speakers this year were the participants only a few years ago. Clearly, we have seen people absorb the material, put it into action, and go even further with it. Lookingat the "class of 2006", it's going to be very interesting to see who emerges as the new leaders and teachers.

Here are some quick pictures of some of the class:

We had a fantastic turnout, our biggest attendance ever:

Below, Dr. Callum Fraser and Dr. Westgard talk with participants during a break:

We also want to sincerely thank all of our speakers. They, too, came from afar to present and enrich the Westgard Workshops. A special thank you goes to Callum Fraser, who came from Scotland to discuss the role of Biologic Variation in Quality Design and Planning. Probably the most illuminating discussion on the topic this year. We also thank Bio-Rad, Inc. for supporting Dr. Fraser's travel and accomodation.

Dr. Fraser's work on Biologic Variation contains some serious statistics, but the overarching message is simple: the data on Biologic Variation can quickly determine the needed performance of laboratory methods. With the extensive databank compiled by Ricos et al., and calculator tools easily available, all you have to do is plug a few numbers in and click a button. It's that easy to figure out the clinical usefulness of current methods, as well as the performance needed for the next generation of methods.

I'll add more comments on the workshops throughout this week. Stay tuned.