Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
[This picture is actually from Curitiba, Brazil, the SBAC conference back in late June, at a lecture I gave there on Sigma-metrics. I don't have a picture of my lecture from Atlanta, but there is video.]
I gave a short booth presentation on Best Practices for Sigma-metrics at the Abbott Diagnostics booth during the AACC/ASCLS convention. This is now available online for those interested.
The link, after the jump.
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Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
It's that time of year again, where the usual and not-so-usual suspects of the laboratory world gather and discuss science - mixed in with a healthy dose of commerce. We have just returned (and are still recovering from) the annual AACC/ASCLS meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.
James O. Westgard at the Westgard QC booth for the 2011 AACC/ASCLS exhibition
More pictures and details of the convention after the jump...
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Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
The second and third days of the Westgard Workshops 2011 focused on Six Sigma Risk Analysis - quantiative, data-driven Risk Management. CLSI will soon be issuing official guidelines on Risk Analysis for QC (the proposed version of EP23 is available, but the final accepted version is not. The CLSI EP23 guideline is expected to be approved by the end of the summer). But there's no need to wait for CLSI to do Risk Analysis. There are many existing resources for laboratories to utilize and start right now.
Tina Krenc, an expert in FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis), leads a group activity on the use of FMEA for laboratory processes
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Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
The Westgard Workshops 2011 were held in Madison, Wisconsin last week, June 1st through 3rd.
Dr. Westgard discusses a question with participants
The topic for the first day was Six Sigma Metrics and Tools. Six Sigma is well known even in healthcare. We did our first Six Sigma workshop about a decade ago. But some of the calculations and implications of Sigma-metrics, particularly for analytical performance, remain less well known. We covered not only the calculations but also the outcomes - how it can improve QC, reduce repeats, increase error detection, and provide better reporting advice to clinicians.
But even beyond these benefits of Sigma-metrics, there's a simple advantage to using the Sigma scale when discussing errors.
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Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
We live in an era of diminished resources, particularly in healthcare, particularly in the laboratory, and particularly for education and training. The training budgets for labs have been shrinking and shrinking over the years, even as the need for skilled technologists has increased.
Educational institutions have not been able to provide enough (high quality, lost cost) training to fill the need. So the manufacturers and vendors have stepped into this gap, supporting the educational needs of their customers.
Westgard Workshops 2011 could not have been mounted without the generous educational help of our gold sponsors, Bio-Rad Laboratories and Abbott Diagnostics. Randox Laboratories also stepped up and provided a premier sponsorship, which helped us immensely.
Dr. James Westgard, pictured here with representatives of the Premier Workshop Sponsor, Randox Laboratories. At Left, Vinay Naik, National Account Manager, who introduced the workshops. Also pictured here is Lynsey Adams, Scientific Writer.
After the break, you can hear the Westgard Workshops Introduction from Randox...
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Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
Westgard QC is proud to announce 2 new public workshops to be held this year:
Both workshops will be held at the DoubleTree Hotel in Madison, Wisconsin.
For more than a decade, the Westgard Workshops have provided in-depth training that can't be found at other conferences. If you want to be more than an anonymous seat in a cavernous hall... If you want to learn whether or not the latest management fad has any real applications in laboratories... If you want honest assessments instead of equivocal statements... If you care more about practical tools than precious theory... You need to attend the Westgard Workshops.
More details on the workshops after the jump...
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Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
Sten Westgard, MS
Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
Posted by Sten Westgard, MS
We've probably never met before.
Maybe you're a reader of this blog. Or a visitor to the website, like the tens of thousands of laboratory professionals who visit the website every month, accessing hundreds of free articles, lessons, and examples of quality control. Or perhaps you're one of the thousands who have taken our online courses or purchased and read our many books and reference manuals.
But it is highly probable that we have never talked, emailed, or had a discussion with each other.
And maybe that's not good.
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By Sten Westgard, MS
We got a big dose of "Minnesota Nice" during our workshop in Rochester, Minnesota. The participants were very helpful - some of them showed up earlier than we did and helped set up the table arrangements for the room! There really is a different culture in the midwest, a spirit of kindness and cooperation that you don't always find in states that lack prolonged sub-zero winters.
When you think of Rochester, Minnesota, your first thought might be the Mayo Clinic. While we were very happy to have many Mayo Clinic attendees, the workshop was actually hosted by the Olmsted Clinic. That's the other hospital in Rochester:
Originally posted August 7th, 2006
"'At the time, what we were suggesting was a fairly new concept,' Carey recalled. 'Before that point, people hadn't talked much about making decisions on the acceptability of methods based on measuring errors.' Garber explains that their workshop has always been intended to provide practical advice for laboratorians on the use - and the misuse - of statistics. 'Our focus has consistently been on clinical significance - where the rubber meets the road,' he said 'Through the years we've tried to help our colleagues better understand what the clinician requires in terms of allowable error and variation on a test result.'"
One of the more significant milestones passed at the AACC/ASCLS
conference was the 30th year of the "Concepts and Practices in the
Evaluation of Laboratory Methods" workshop. This workshop, taught by
Carl Garber, PhD, R. Neill Carey, PhD, and David Koch, PhD, is now the
longest continuously taught workshop at the conference.
An article celebrating this anniversary was in the Monday "Convention Daily" of Clinical Laboratory News
(Title: Workshops Offer Participants New Lab Tools and Skills:
Instructors of 'Evaluation of Laboratory Methods' Mark 30th Year').
Unfortunately, the article is not available online (yet), so I will
quote a short passage where Neill Carey and Carl Garber talk about the
'early years' of the workshop:
"'At the time, what we were suggesting was a fairly new concept,' Carey recalled. 'Before that point, people hadn't talked much about making decisions on the acceptability of methods based on measuring errors.' Garber explains that their workshop has always been intended to provide practical advice for laboratorians on the use - and the misuse - of statistics. 'Our focus has consistently been on clinical significance - where the rubber meets the road,' he said 'Through the years we've tried to help our colleagues better understand what the clinician requires in terms of allowable error and variation on a test result.'"
I worked with Carl and Neill and David when they worked at the
University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics in Madison. They are
a part of that "Wisconsin mafia" that has helped keep quality and
statistics at the center of laboratory testing. I must also admit I had
a hand in developing this workshop, too. We published a series of
papers in the early 1970s on the "proper use of statistics in
evaluating methods" and presented them in a workshop in 1976 at the
American Society of Medical Technology. The next year, 1977, I was
heading over to Uppsala, Sweden, for a sabbatical (where my interest in
QC would begin and where the "Westgard Rules" would be developed). I
recommended that Carl and Neill take the workshop to the AACC
conference (David Koch would join them in 1982.). And they have taught
that workshop ever since.
Over the years, they have applied continuous improvement to their
Method Evaluation workshop, modifying, updating, and adding material.
The workshop, now part of the new AACC University, is a tightly packed
four hours that includes not only the basic statistical studies for
method validation, but also Six Sigma, CLIA regulations and CLSI
guidelines. There's probably no other workshop that is so stuffed with
information. If you ever get a chance to come to the AACC conference, I
highly recommend attending the workshop. You'll learn a lot - either
something new or something you've forgotten.
What they've accomplished is the long distance marathon of conference
programming. Few people would have the stamina, diligence, and
determination to make a fresh presentation every year on this important
topic. But Carl, Neill, and David have done it and I hope they continue
to do it for decades to come.
So congratulations again.
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