WHAT'S NEW?WHAT'S NEW?Six Sigma not only tells you where you can cut costs and improve quality, it's also a great staffing indicator. See how Sigma-metrics can tell you where staff rotation is possible, and where you need to put your best techs.
Guests Else-Maj Suolinna of Finland and Toni Toressani of Switzerland present information on how to use EZ Rules™ to design QC for newborn tests.
Westgard in the News
Recently, Six Sigma has gotten more attention in healthcare. The November issues of CLP Magazine has an article about Six Sigma in our field, along with an interview of Dr. Westgard.
http://www.clpmag.comA recent issue of the AACC Management Science Newsletter also contains an article about Six Sigma, this one written by Dr. Westgard. (Alas, this is only available to AACC Management Science members).
Finally, the archives of Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine posted a review of the Basic Planning for Quality manual http://www.westgard.com/basicqpbook.htm#reviews
Register now for the 2002 Workshops:
QC Issues and Answers May 20, 2002 and
Six Sigma Quality Design and Control, May 21-22,
2002
For those of you who wanted to attend the 2001 Westgard Workshops, we've already opened registration for the workshops of 2002. Dr. Westgard will be offering a workshop on Basic QC Practices, plus a workshop on Six Sigma Quality Design and Control. In three days, you'll start by learning the basics of QC and finish by mastering the most advanced techniques available. Reserve your place now! http://www.westgard.com/workshops.html
Order Westgard QC products and services DIRECTLY (and securely) through the website. You can even sign up for our online courses and our public workshops online!
"Cool" Downloads:
EZ Rules™ demos and downloads:
EZ Rules™ software (ISBN 1-886958-14-9) is the fastest, easiest way to choose the best control rules for your laboratory tests. Using a built-in Automatic QC Selection engine, EZ Rules™ asks you a few simple questions and then automatically tells you which control rule you should use for that test. It takes minimal user input, just a few questions, to get an authoritative QC recommendation. EZ Rules™ consults an internal library of over 100 statistical control rules, and gives you the option to select Patient Data control rules for Average of Normals.You can download standalone demos, view streaming Shockwave movies, and download the foreword, TOC, and section 1 of the program manual at
http://www.westgard.com/ezrules.htm
Basic Method Validation Download:
Download the Foreword, TOC, and Chapter 1 of this popular manual, which was recently called "an ideal learning tool"and "an excellent resource" by Laboratory Medicine.
http://www.westgard.com/basicmvbook.htmBasic QC Practices Book Download:
Thousands have read the book, taken the online course, or used the training CD. Basic QC Practices is an essential reference. Now you can download the Foreword, TOC, and Chapter 1 of this manual.
http://www.westgard.com/basicqcbook.htm(And of course, you can still download the TOC & Foreword of our new manual, Basic Planning for Quality http://www.westgard.com/basicqpbook.htm)
Online Courses:
Hundreds and hundreds of people like you -- from across the country
and around the globe -- are taking these online courses for continuing
education credit. Join them!
Basic Method Validation. Everything you ever wanted to know about method validation but were afraid to ask. Learn the inner, hidden, deeper secret meaning behind method validation (i.e. Why the heck do you have to crunch all those numbers, make graphs, and stick them in a folder?). This course covers all the key experiments like comparison of methods, linearity and reportable range, replication, interference, recovery, detection limit, and reference interval. CLIA, CAP-LAP, JCAHO and other regulatory requirements are also explained. An online data analysis toolkit is provided to give you worksheets, experimental plans, and the ability to generate comparison plots, difference plots, linearity plots, histograms, and more online. This course is accredited by the ASCLS for 15 PACE credits. Follow this link to register. THE BMV COURSE IS ALSO NOW AVAILABLE THROUGH THE AACC FOR 15 ACCENT CREDITS.
"Westgard Rules": The Multirule QC Minicourse. The "Westgard Rules" are common in many laboratories, but are often misunderstood and misinterpreted. Finally, Dr. Westgard has developed a course so that you can hear from the horses mouth what the rules are, how to implement them, and how to interpret control data correctly. This is a short essential course for laboratory techs who must use the "Westgard Rules". Online qc tools are used to demonstrate how to implement Multirule QC - a QC simulator, a QC checker, and more. Interactive quizzes help you judge your own progess at every step. This course is accredited by the ASCLS for 5 PACE credits. In just three lessons, you can learn everything there is to know about "Westgard Rules" and know that it was Westgard himself who told you. Follow this link to register.
The Levey-Jennings Minicourse (5 PACE credits):
Here's the fastest way to learn about the Levey-Jennings control chart. Not only do you learn how to construct control charts, plot data on them, and interpret the results,
you also gain access to Internet tools that actually create Levey-Jennings charts to your specifications. You can even test your interpretation of random data through an online QC Trainer.
http://www.westgard.com/levjens.htm
http://www.ascls.org/wqc/lj.htmlBasic QC Practices has hundreds of laboratory professionals enrolled! It's our most popular online course, with dozens of site licences across the country. You get a discount on our Basic QC Practices manual when you sign up! This well-received course has everything that the Multirule and Levey-Jennings Minicourse has and much, much more.
The Chicken or the Egg: Which errors come first? Pre-, Post-, Analytical Errors
Why is it we argue over which errors are worse? Does it matter if some errors are "bigger" than others? David Plaut, Dr. Westgard, and the webmaster discuss how to sort out the conflicting priorities over improvements in the laboratory.
Biological Variation: Principles & Practices
Dr. Callum Fraser, the interationally recognized expert, has written a new book on biological variation. We are pleased to be able to give you a preview of this definitive reference. .
Advanced QC for Newborn Screening
Neonatal screening is one of the most important services the laboratory can provide. Yet it is also one of the more difficult testing areas -- hard to characterize, hard to standardize, hard to QC. However, even in this tough area, Six Sigma can provide crucial guidance for critical neonatal testing. See how it's done.
Words are not capable of expressing the magnitude of suffering in New York City, Washington, DC, or Pennsylvania. We at Westgard QC want to express our sympathy, sorrow and grief to the victims and their families of these terrorist acts. It is our belief that the strength and resilience of our nation and other democracies will not be broken by these acts.
We here at Westgard QC are doing our best to operate normally. We are still here, offering QC advice, publishing reference manuals and software, hosting online courses. Our shipments may take longer to arrive to some customers while the airlines are grounded, but rest assured we are open for business, undeterred and unafraid.
Six Sigma Quality Design and Control: the manual
This manual sold out at the AACC bookstore during the first day of the Chicago conference! Greeted with the same enthusiasm of the Westgard Workshops 2001, the Six Sigma Quality Design and Control manual can now be purchased through the AACC or through our own online store. It's packed with nearly 300 pages of cutting edge information about QC and profitibility. Six Sigma has saved the time and money for every industry that implements it. Now it's time for healthcare laboratories to reduce their defects, optimize their processes, and drive their profits. If you don't learn about Six Sigma, your competitor will! Act now and save $30 off the cost of the book!
The Chicago AACC/ASCLS conference was a great success for Westgard QC. For the third year running, the AACC bookstore sold out of our titles: Basic QC Practices, Basic Method Validation, Basic Planning for Quality and Six Sigma Quality Design and Control. It's good to know that the manuals are so popular and useful. Of the hundreds who visited the booth, we were most happy to meet so many of our customers, course participants, and website regulars. Visitors got a chance to preview our EZ Runs software, page through the Six Sigma manual, and find out what's next on the horizon for Westgard QC.
Six Sigma: The Online Calculator
Find out your Sigma Metric from the comfort of your own computer. No need to hire an expensive consultant or buy an over-priced Sigma-suite. Through our internet Six Sigma Calculator, you can quickly and easily find out how your laboratory processes stack up.
Quality in the Spotlight Conference! October 8th and 9th, Antwerp, Belgium:
Dr. Westgard will be presenting a talk on "Analytical quality achieved through technological processes," which will focus on automation of the QC process and design of a three-stage generic QC procedure. He will also illustrate how multi-stage QC can be implemented with the EZ RUNS program. This is a wonderful conference to attend, with many QC luminaries present and a relaxed, friendly atmosphere. Of course, there is also the presentation of the "Westgard Award" as well as the infamous limerick contest. For more information, or a registration form, contact us at 608-833-4718 or you can email H.M.J.Goldschmidt@ckchl-mb.nl.
Westgard QC and Data Innovations are proud to announce the release of Instrument Manager version 7.02. Instrument Manager is the total hardware-software solution that links laboratory information systems to your medical devices. Instrument Manager boasts over 2,000 worldwide installations serving more than 20,000 instrument connections.
This latest release of Instrument Manager offers many time and cost saving enhancements to its existing features: Rules Processing, which enables you to process requests and results through conditional statements and Results Review/Edit/Release that can be used to review, edit and release test results by specimen or tests within a specimen.
Instrument Manager version 7.02 also allows for the integration of EZ Runs, a Quality Control (QC) package from Westgard QC. This optional addition to Instrument Manager version 7.02 offers the user the ability to capture QC data via instrument interface and automatically process it using Westgard QC rules. QC results triggering rules violations are presented to the user for corrective action. Instrument Manager Quality Control allows you to setup QC Materials on a specific instrument connection, test code or method; view and maintain your QC specimen data with action logs, control charts, data entry, and reports; and automatically receive data from instruments and send that data to the Westgard Quality Control package for processing.
Greg Vail, President of Data Innovations, remarked: "Version 7.02 is in keeping with our philosophy of always meeting and exceeding the needs of our customers, whether we add these features ourselves or seek out best of breed applications to integrate. We are extremely pleased to be able to exclusively offer integration of EZ Runs to our markets and to be partnering with such a respected authority in Quality Control."
About Data Innovations, Inc.
Data Innovations, Inc., South Burlington, Vermont, was founded in 1989. Data Innovations, Inc. (DII) is the pre-eminent provider of medical instrument interface solutions to a wide range of customers, including laboratories, laboratory automation equipment manufacturers, laboratory information system vendors, medical device manufacturers, and quality control materials vendors. With over ten years of expertise in the industry, and more than 2,000 systems installed, it is no surprise that laboratories all over the world look to Data Innovations' to provide solutions to the challenges of interfacing laboratory instruments, point-of-care devices, and automation devices to laboratory information systems. The power, stability, and ease of use of the award winning Instrument Manager (IM) has prompted it to be utilized as a consolidating front end to a larger information system, separating the host from real-time demand, and standardizing protocols. It is also used as a value enhancer between instrumentation and an information system, filling those important gaps in functionality between the two. Finally, it can be used as a stand-alone small information system.Westgard QC is happy to partner with Data Innovations to provide cutting edge solutions to today's laboratory challenges. For more information about the Instrument Manager - EZ Runs package, feel free to visit www.data-innovations.com or contact us at 608-833-4718 (email: westgard@westgard.com.
Six Sigma: The Workshop Review
For those of you who wanted to attend the Westgard Workshops 2001 but couldn't, here's a chance to see what happened. A good and eye-opening time was had by all. We're very happy with the Class of 2001 and we look forward to next year's participants.
Repeated, repeated, got lucky!
Believe it or not, but this is an actual comment from a QC action log (from a facility that shall remain nameless). At least the author was being honest about how he/she was performing their QC - by luck, not by science. If you still use 2s limits for your controls, you need to read this article. If you still repeat controls and runs until they're "in," you need to read this article. And for anyone who thinks that QC is just fine, you really, really need to read this article...
Booth #1535!
BWrite this number down now! It's our booth number for the AACC/ASCLS Clinical Laboratory Exposition in Chicago, July 29th through August 2nd. We'll be down at the booth, demonstrating our new EZ Runs(tm) software. Copies of Six Sigma Quality Design and Control manual will also be available for review, and on sale in the AACC bookstore. We'll also have a drawing for free Westgard "stuff": messenger bag, logo shirt, manual, and more.
Six Sigma Quality Design and Improvement Applications
Forget the theory and the hype about Six Sigma: What can do "in action"? It can help you to objectively assess the state of your current QC, determine the desirable CV and bias for your tests, specify the necessary QC procedures and/or needed improvements, compare all kinds of quality requirements to each other, and more. Combined with our Quality-Planning tools, Six Sigma can offer a "one-two" punch to any QC situation.Six Sigma: Medical Cutoffs as Tolerance Limits
See how quality-planning can deliver World Class Quality for a POC device. This QC application makes use of medical cutoffs as tolerance limits for a cardiac marker POC device. Using Six Sigma techniques, Dr. Westgard shows how QC can be easy for difficult methods.EZ Runs(tm) Sneak Preview
There's a new software program in town. It's EZ Runs(tm), a program that offers you the ability to do Levey-Jennings charting for control values using multirule, multistage QC. Check it out here, or visit our booth at the AACC/ASCLS show in Chicago.
Six Sigma Basics: Process Improvement, goals and measurements
Just what is Six Sigma? What has it accomplished? Does it apply to healthcare laboratories? Do I really have to learn it? All these questions (and more) are answered in this lesson. This is a gentle introduction to Six Sigma -- in fact, this lesson provides a "statistic-free" descriptions of Six Sigma.
Six Sigma Basics: Outcome Management of Process Performance
Six Sigma saves you money when you can reduce defects. But how do you find those defects? Dr. Westgard gives you a step-by-step method of analyzing your tests, identifying waste, calculating sigma-metrics, and more.Clinical Laboratory Sciences: Victims of our own Success
This guest essay by Diana Mass of Arizona State University addresses the current crisis of the CLS professions. She asks the provative question, Are we victims of our own success? and explores the possibility that ss laboratory professionals, we've performed so well that management now takes us for granted. Finally, she details how we can stop being victims and take back our profession
Six Sigma Quality Management
Have you heard about Six-Sigma yet? It's the latest trend in quality management. It has revolutionized business processes in companies like GE and Motorola. The famed Jack Welch of GE called it the "genetic code" of future leadership and made it a mandatory requirement that all executives learn and practice Six Sigma Improvement. Dr. Westgard explains what's new about this approach, what's hype, and what can be applied in the laboratory.
Six Sigma and Requisite Laboratory Quality
In the healthcare market, a lot of manufacturers are issuing products with more of an eye on their profit margin than on the quality of the product. If your manufacturer can't meet Six Sigma requirements, what can you do? Improve your internal laboratory QC -- Dr. Westgard explains how.Errors in Reasoning about Laboratory Errors
What's scarier? The fact that there are errors in laboratories, or the fact that we don't understand what those errors mean? A lot of logically dubious arguments have been put forward about reducing QC, ignoring QC, or eliminating the practice of QC altogether. Dr. Westgard examines and refutes the thinking behind these arguments.2001: Year of the Odyssey Articles
This isn't the first nor probably the last article to compare this year to the landmark film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Over 32 years ago, Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke predicted a world of routine space travel, giant computers, and vast possibility. Has our 2001 met these expectations -- in the laboratory? Dr.Westgard muses on what laboratory professionals thought back in 1968 and how things have "changed" since then.CLIA Postponed Again and Again and Again and Again!
For the fourth time, CLIA QC clearance guidelines has been postponed. Will there ever be a clear set of QC guidelines from the government? What happens if this limbo continues? Dr. Westgard explains what the latest development means to the laboratory, and suggests a possible way to sanity.
Westgard QC, Inc., is proud to announce the release of our latest software: EZ Rules™ software
(ISBN 1-886958-14-9) is the fastest, easiest way to choose the best control rules for your laboratory tests. Using a built-in Automatic QC Selection engine, EZ Rules™ asks you a few simple questions and then automatically tells you which control rule you should use for that test. It takes minimal user input, just a few questions, to get an authoritative QC recommendation. EZ Rules™ consults an internal library of over 100 statistical control rules, and gives you the option to select Patient Data control rules for Average of Normals.We could go on and on about EZ Rules™, but the easiest way to find out more is to visit
http://www.westgard.com/ezrules.htm
There's complete information about the program, plus you can view a streaming Shockwave video demonstrating the software in action, and you can download the foreword, TOC, and section 1 of the program manual.
For all the news that was 2000,
follow this link. We put up a lot of essays,
lessons, etc., last year, and we're proud of the response. Our
website has grown now to over 5,000 visitors a month. We
hope you keep coming back for more.
