The Westgard Rules

What's New: August 2013

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

HAS YOUR QC BEEN VANITY-SIZED?

In clothing, it's well-known that sizes have been changing for both men and women. Manufacturers are "down-sizing" their clothing to soothe the vanity of their customers.

Have diagnostic manufacturers been doing the same thing to laboratories?

Does my SD fit or flatter my lab's real performance?
http://www.westgard.com/vanity-qc.htm

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Hitting a Goal, but Missing the Point? (Or Missing Both?)

With so many different sources of laboratory requirements, it's a challenge for laboratories to choose the most appropriate goal. Sometimes labs can choose targets that are too easy to hit. Other times, labs might choose targets that no method on the market can hit. As we look at some examples, we try to determine which goals are the right goals.

For example, can any method hit the target for Sodium?
http://www.westgard.com/goals-and-targets.htm

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Cancer Markers on the UniCel DxI

In recent issues of the newsletter, we've turned our attention to tumor markers. This analysis is a look at the DxI 800 Immunoassay Analyzer and its performance for five tumor markers.

Sigma-metrics of tumor markers
http://www.westgard.com/cancer-markers-unicel.htm

Pop Quiz: How many people are US hospitals killing?

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

It's almost mandatory that any presentation or report discussing patient safety references the landmark IOM report of 2000: To Err is Human - Building a Safer Health System. The takeaway quote from this report is that US hospitals were causing 44,000 to 98,000 deaths that were otherwise preventable. That is, hospitals were causing tens of thousands of avoidable deaths.

A recent paper has attempted to revise that estimate, focusing on Preventable Adverse Events (PAEs) that contributed to the death of patients. Can you guess how lethal US hospitals are now?

1. 4,000 to 10,000 PAEs per year
2. 44,000 to 98,0000 PAEs per year
3. 100,000 to 200,000 PAEs per year
4. 210,000 to 440,000 PAEs per year

The answer, after the jump...

Quality Conference for Medical Labs

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

Dr. James Westgard will be giving a lecture on Measuring Variation Measurement Uncertainty at the Third Quality Management Conference for Medical Laboratories on October 16-18, 2013. This is being held at the Renaissance Hotel in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Chaired by Dr. Michael Noble, this is really three meetings in one:

• UBC Program Office’s third Quality Management conference
• Standards Council of Canada hosting Canada’s annual celebration of World Standards Day
• BC Society for Laboratory Science endorsed education day

The meeting topics cover a broad range of issues relevant to the medical laboratory

• A 20/20 view of the medical laboratory and laboratory Quality
• What Consumers want, expect and need from the medical laboratory
• Quality needs of rural medical laboratories
• Errors in Pathology
• What your laboratory needs to know about ISO standards for Laboratory Quality (ISO15189:2012) and Medical Devices (ISO 13485:2008)
• And much, much more...

For more information on this conference, visit http://polqm.ca/conference_2013/conference_2013/conference_home.html

Bio-Rad's Bold Advice on Risk QC

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

As we noted earlier, the big news from Houston was that CMS will soon be issuing it's IQCP implementation regulations.

In advance of that release, Bio-Rad has issued a White Paper : Looking Ahead to Patient Risk Management.

So, how many controls does Bio-Rad want you to run?  More after the jump...

The Big News from Houston: What's an IQCP again?

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

The biggest news coming out of the AACC/ASCLS conference in Houston was made by Judy Yost of CMS.

So the new future is IQCP. Remember what that stands for?

• It's Quickly Coming to Pass
• I've Quit Caring about Performance
• It's Quackery, Chaos, and Pablum
• I'm Quietly Compromising my Processes 

   And the answer, after the jump...

The Raffle Reveal!

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

Our annual "Westgard Wear" raffle was alive and well in Houston, as well as online. But we're not ready to announce the winners, because the raffle prizes are still being painted.

Here's the new prize for 2013:

Yes, that's right. It's the "Westgard Rules" Bobblehead.

It may be the most obscure item we've ever made, for the geekiest of lab geeks.

Dr. Westgard is posing here with the prototype. The bobbleheads themselves are still being produced and painted. So we urge your patience while we wait to award the raffle winners their prizes.

Here's a close-up, for those who are curious:

I know you can't see it from this angle, but trust me, that jacket has elbow patches. That's an genuinely eccentric professor Bobblehead.

For those of you still interested, there is still time to enter the raffle (ends on August 30th).

You can enter simply by joining the membership, or if you're already a member, by simply sending an email to [email protected]

 

Thank you, Houston

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

Dr. James O. Westgard poses with Dr. Ijaz Ahmad, Consultant Chemical Pathologist for Shifa International Hospitals of Islamabad, Pakistan. (And that man way in the background of the booth is fellow Badger and all-round great guy, Don Wiebe)

We want to thank everyone who braved the heat and humidity of Houston to attend this year's AACC/ASCLS conference. We were fortunate to see hundreds of people at the 37th annual Method Evaluation workshops, a Bio-Rad industry workshop, and several Abbott booth presentations, as well as the hundreds who managed to stop by and see us at our own booth.

Special thanks to Dr. Nils Person and Dr. David Koch, who were carrying the heaviest part of workload for the Method Evaluation workshops. Thanks also to Dr. Curt Parvin and Dr. Jay Jones, who were co-presenters with Dr. Westgard.

See you next year in Chicago. The weather should be a little better there, we hope.