Guest Essay
An updated version of this essay appears in the Nothing but the Truth book.
The loss of the Columbia and Challenger Shuttles were not just technical failures - they were also a result of a culture at NASA that devalued safety. As we look at the Shuttle failures, how can we be sure that labs aren't doing the same thing?
Dr. Carmen Ricos and her colleagues have provided us with an update to their Biological Variation Database. New analytes have been added, figures have been updated and in some cases, corrected. This article summarizes all the changes made to the desirable specifications for total error, bias, and imprecision (derived from biological variation) for hundreds of analytes.
Dr. Pål Rustad explains how more than 100 laboratories in the Nordic countries collaborated to produce common reference intervals for 25 quantities in serum/plasma and 8 hematology quantities.
Dr. Per Hyltoft-Petersen discusses why reference values and reference intervals are still an issue and are still important.
Dr. HMJ Goldschmidt and Dr JC Libeer explain the history of the Quality in the Spotlight conference, an annual event in Europe that is devoted to the topic of quality. Also, a list of "Westgard Award" winners is given.