The Westgard Rules

What's New on Westgard Web: April 2012

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

Here are the latest articles over at westgard.com

REDUCING RISK: WHAT'S THE RIGHT QC?

At the March CLSI Leadership Conference, an educational symposium tackled
the topic "Reducing Risk in Healthcare: Present and Future Trends in
the Laboratory." Dr. Westgard presented, participated, and offers his
perspective on where Risk QC is going to take the laboratory.

If we do Risk Analysis Right, can we "Right-size" our QC?
 http://www.westgard.com/the-right-risk-analysis.htm


THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO MEASUREMENT UNCERTAINTY IN CLINICAL
LABORATORIES

In the wake of the new CLSI C51 guideline on measurement uncertainty,
we asked noted uncertainty expert Dr. Graham White to provide us with
an easier-to-understand explanation of MU, its role in the clinical
laboratory, and the advantages it offers.

What's the uncertainty around an answer of 42?
 http://www.westgard.com/hitchhike-mu.htm



CANCER MARKERS ON THE VISTA

A 2011 study performed analysis on the performance of cancer markers on
the Siemens Vista. We use the data to calculate Sigma-metrics. How good
do cancer marker assays need to be? Are new methods meeting those
goals?

What's the Sigma of a CA 19-9 assay?:
 http://www.westgard.com/cancer-markers-vista.htm

AACC/ASCLS in LA: Save the Date!

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

It's that time of year again, creeping up at us like an oncoming freight train.

The annual AACC/ASCLS convention is approaching. This year it will be held in Los Angeles, California from July 15th through July 19th.

Westgard QC will be there, exhibiting in our (tiny) booth at the vast Clinical Lab Expo. This year our booth number is 951. Please add that to your list of places to visit on the floor. We will be demonstrating our QC Design software, displaying all of our reference manuals, including a new title (whose topic will remain a mystery for a while...). The infamous "Westgard Wear Raffle" will also take place.

For those interested in attending a scientific lecture by Dr. Westgard, he will be speaking at the Abbott Diagnostics industry workshop for clinical chemisty and immunoassays. This lecture will be on Tuesday, July 17th, at 7:00 am. Dr. Westgard's topic will be on Sigma-metric driven Quality Management Systems which will provide a discussion of the role Six Sigma can play in the broad quality systems approach that laboratories are adopting.

We will provide more registration links/details in a future post and update this post as well.

So, save the dates. Hope to see you in LA!