Guest Essay
Risk Management is coming to laboratory medicine, possibly to a regulation near you. As we learn about the principles, tools, and processes of RM, Sten Westgard reminds us to take time to evaluate the risks.
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. David Parry of St. Boniface General Hospital in Winnipeg, provides us with data on Sigma metrics in two laboratories. Dr. Parry's innovation is a Quality Goal Index, a metric that can distinguish between precision and accuracy problems, as well as techniques to deal with calibrator lot changes.
David Plaut, longtime friend and colleague of Dr. Westgard, recently collaborated on a multisite evaluation of the implementation of "Westgard Rules" in the laboratory. The poster, originally at the 2005 AACC conference, is now available in an expanded format online. And we thank David for it.
We're delighted to present this guest essay from Dr. Kent Dooley, an astute reader who has done serious thinking about what patient safety implies for quality control. If labs are serious about patient safety, should they be reducing how often they run controls?