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EZ Rules© 3 software
$695 list price
(Save by ordering online - download a demo first and/or ask for a coupon)
Author:
James O. Westgard, PhD, FACB
Features:
- Easy Interview Mode
- Powerful Form Mode
- Patented Automatic QC Selection of most appropriate control rules for tests
- QC Rule Validation reports for inspections, manuals, and records
- Built-in library of over 100 statistical
control rules
- Average of Normals Patient Data control
rules
- Three types of quality requirements:
Analytical Total Error,
Clinical Decision Interval, and Biological Goals
- Built-in tables of CLIA and other quality
requirements
Requirements:
- 50 MB hard disk space PC with
- Windows 95 or higher
- 64 MB RAM or more
- at least 800 x 600 monitor
- printer supported by Windows
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EZ Rules© 3
Advanced QC Design software from Westgard QC!
EZ Rules© 3 is advanced, easy-to-use, software that automatically selects the best control
rules for your laboratory tests.
If you want to rationally
choose QC procedures to meet quality requirements, reduce waste,
and increase the error detection of your laboratory methods,
EZ Rules© 3
is for you.
- Optimize your QC and reduce repeat runs and
false rejects!
- Satisfy CLIA quality
requirements
-- or any quality requirement!
- Build quality directly
into your laboratory methods!
EZ Rules© 3 uses a built-in Automatic
QC Selection engine to choose the best control rules
for you test. All you need to enter is the method CV, method
bias, and (CLIA) quality requirement. Don't know the quality
requirement? EZ Rules© 3
has tables
of quality requirements for more than 400 analytes. All the CLIA
quality requirements are listed, as well as (European) biologic
goals, clinical decision intervals, and desirable specifications
for quality control derived from biologic variation data.
EZ Rules© 3 offers the first QC Design program that can create Multistage QC Designs. For tests where performance is less than ideal, multiple QC Designs can be chosen to balance error detection, falsre rejection, and the cost of quality control.
EZ Rules© 3 allows you to optimize your Patient Data (Average of Normals) QC procedures. Based on test performance characteristics, EZ Rules© 3 can automatically select the number of "normal" patient samples you need to control a method using the Average of Normals instead of traditional controls.
EZ Rules© 3 calculates the Sigma Metrics for your tests. You can evaluate the quality you achieve against universal benchmarks. For advanced Quality Management, these metrics are a critical step in the improvement process.
EZ Rules© 3 allows you to create QC Rule Validation reports complete with charts of operating specifications, Critical-Error and Sigma Metrics graphs, and all the relevant method data. For documentation of appropriate control rule selection, there is no better software.
View
actual program screens!
Read
the Foreword, TOC, and S.1 of the manual!
Order
the software now!
Download
a demo!
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EZ Rules from Westgard Quality Corporation is a computer program
for automatic selection of quality control (QC) rules that will
detect medically important errors. The idea of automatic QC selection
is that an appropriate level of QC should be selected for a given
situation, neither too little, nor too much.
The program is supplied on a floppy disk, and I observed uncomplicated
installation and performance on Windows ® 95, 98, NT and
2000 operating systems.
An interactive dialog forms the basis of program operation.
The user is prompted for input concerning method characteristics:
imprecision, bias, decision level, and expected rate of instability
(three level options) and number of control materials. The expected
rate of instability is used by the program to determine the necessary
power level for QC rules. Furthermore, the user chooses among
three principles for specification of quality requirement: (a)
an allowable total error (e.g., according to CLIA proficiency
testing criteria); (b) clinical (in the form of the decision
interval); or (c) related to biologic variation. The user further
selects among control rules on the basis of measurement of control
materials (so-called traditional rules) or on patient values
(average of normals principle). On the basis of this input, the
program suggests an appropriate control rule and number of control
measurements. As a supplement to the selected rule, an OPSpecs
chart may be viewed with an outline of performance for the selected
rule and a set of rules with related performance to the primarily
suggested one. Power curves are also presented for the displayed
rules for further orientation. Finally, a QC Validation Report
with input and calculated parameters, and graphics, is presented
that may also be printed.
The program can be used intuitively, and familiarization with
the program is aided by three tutorial examples. The manual contains
a "Getting Started" section that provides an easy introduction
and overview. Subsequent sections, "Learning Program Operation"
and "Rule Selection Methodology", give a more general
background with an outline of the selection procedure based on
the OPSpecs chart concept, partly as excerpts from earlier publications.
The final section "Technical Information", contains
definitions and computational methods. Tables, which also are
available in the online help menu, are provided concerning quality
demands (CLIA, clinical and biologic approaches). A listing of
the repertoire of control rules is available in the online help
menu. These include so-called traditional rules: Levey-Jenning,
Westgard multirules, mean and range rules (~70), and patient-based
rules (average of normals). Furthermore, extensive literature
references are provided; further information is available at
http://www.westgard.com
EZ rules represents the latest development of the QC Validator®
program series, which in the 2.0 version also provided the option
of automatic selection of QC rules. In the present program, the
interactive dialog facilitates the procedure and the average
of normals control rule principle is a new feature. Although
the main point of the program is automated rule selection, an
option for the user to evaluate the performance of a specific
rule might have been valuable, e.g., to compare a given rule
used commonly in a laboratory with the one suggested by the program.
This software, including its associated manual, is user-friendly,
provides appropriate instructions, performs well, and is available
at a reasonable price.
Kristian Linnet
Laboratory of Clinical Biochemistry
Psychiatric University Hospital
DK-8240 Risskov, Denmark