The Hamilton, Ontario, AQC Workshop
By James O. Westgard, PhD
Pictured with us are Brenda Rafter-Tadgell, Cathie McCallum,
Dr. Westgard, Joan Weppler, Andrea Tjahja, Sten Westgard and Dr. Edward Young.
These hosts worked very hard to arrange for a spectacular day.
On May 22, 2009, we had the pleasure of presenting a workshop on “Planning Analytical QC Systems” in Hamilton, Ontario. Sponsored by the Hamilton Regional Laboratory Medicine Program, 200+ laboratory analysts greeted us with great Canadian hospitality.
We were met at the airport by a stretch limo that was truly impressive. And unusual, since the normal business travel we do does not involve any kind of limo, much less stretch. We only wished our wives had been along so they could have been suitably impressed.
This is our first workshop on “Planning Analytical QC Systems” that begins to address the application of risk management for optimizing laboratory QC plans. We intend to further develop this theme and related educational materials to address the training needs for the new CLSI EP22 and EP23 guidelines due to be published later this year. Our plan is to provide practical guidance in tune with our recent book “Assuring the Right Quality Right: Good Laboratory Practices for Verifying the Attainment of the Intended Quality of Test Results.”
For those of you who follow Westgard Web, the introduction to our approach to developing Analytical QC Plans can be found in the following recent postings:
- “First do no harm: A safety net to catch analytical errors.” www.westgard.com/essay125.htm
- “The Risk Management Process.” www.westgard.com/essay127.htm
Our approach builds on the fundamentals of QC Design and Planning, which are now available in a new online course on “Quality Management and Design of Analytical Systems.” This new course is based on the “Right Quality Right” book and introduces the concepts and tools that are needed to customize or optimize QC procedures for the quality required by a test and the precision and bias observed for a method.
Our Hamilton workshop covered some of this material, with particular emphasis on tools such as the Method Decision Chart, Sigma-Metrics QC Selection Tool, and Normalized OPSpecs Charts. You can find support for these tools on our website, including the following descriptions and downloads:
- “Update on QC design tools.” www.westgard.com/essay94.htm
- “Adopting the OPSpecs chart as your planning tool.” www.westgard.com/lesson54.htm
- “Implementing a manual process using normalized OPSpecs charts. www.westgard.com/lesson56.htm
- Sigma-metrics worksheet and presentation pdf download
- Normalized OPSpecs charts pdf download
Thanks again to our hosts and to all those who attended the workshop.
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