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100,000 miles to Quality: 2005 in Review
December 2005
Dr. Westgard visited a dozen countries and dozens of cities this year. At the end of this year of travels, he sends out thanks to countless individuals who came to listen, to talk, and to learn together about quality.
When people ask what I’ve been doing this past year, I tell them I’ve been jet-lagged. I’ve flown over 100,000 miles on my favorite bankrupt airline. You really do have to make a choice between bankrupt airlines when you fly in the US these days. The planes are almost always full, which makes one wonder how they ever made money before, or whether this is just the current business strategy for renegotiating contracts, getting rid of pension plans, etc.
It’s been wonderful to meet so many people at conferences around the world. This year I’ve been to the LabQuality meeting in Helsinki, Finland; Quality in the Spotlight in Antwerp, Belgium; Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute meeting on “QC for the Future” in Baltimore; Institute for Quality in Laboratory Medicine in Atlanta; Euromedlab 2005 in Glasgow, Scotland; LabKvalita in Bratislava, Slovakia; International Critical Care Symposium in Saint Malot, France; ACLPS in Pittsburgh; AACC in Orlando; G2 Lab Institute Symposium on Lab Quality in Washington DC; Mexican Federation of Clinical Pathology in Monterrey, Mexico. Plus I’ve participated in workshops on quality control and quality management in Chicago, Seattle, Pittsburgh, Newark, Detroit, Syracuse, Tulsa, San Francisco, Dallas, and Sioux Falls in the US, as well as Birmingham, England; Den Haag, Holland; Brussels, Belgium; and Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, and New Dehli, India.
A few of my favorite moments are captured in the picture gallery included here.
Now it is mid-December and snowy here in Madison. We are anticipating having all our grandchildren here over Christmas. The tree is up and Joan has been wrapping presents for two days solid. Another remarkable year, with so much to be thankful for, in spite of the turbulent and troubled times.
And we have big plans for 2006!
The Westgard QC Madison workshops will be held June 5-7, 2006. We are adopting more of a conference format and will feature many outside speakers to bring in their experience and expertise. The theme will be “Evidence-Based Laboratory Quality Management.”
- Day 1 will focus on current practice guidelines for quality management, including updates on CLIA, JCAHO, and CAP policies and procedures, plus presentations on the patient safety movement, national laboratory quality indicators, and risk management.
- Day 2 will provide in-depth applications of Six Sigma for analytic processes, pre- and post-analytic processes, plus quality assessment of laboratory testing on the basis of proficiency testing and peer data.
- Day 3 will be special! Callum Fraser will present a morning workshop on “Quality Goals.” The afternoon will follow with discussions on how to translate quality goals into manufacturing specifications and laboratory operating specifications, which include the QC necessary to assure the desired quality goals is actually achieved.
James O. Westgard, PhD, is a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison. He also is president of Westgard QC, Inc., (Madison, Wis.) which provides tools, technology, and training for laboratory quality management.