Advantage Reporting: Customized Reporting
Understanding Analyte Interest Groups

Article written by Michael Haller, Advantage Tools Lead Developer, Analytical Products Group

This article is the fifth in the series highlighting The Advantage Reporting Tool. Listed below is a summary of the prior articles:

1. The foundation of The Advantage Reporting Tool
2. The Certification Map
3. The Performance Map
4. The Analyte Trend Report

Convenience and Flexibility
Does your lab review PT results by department? Does your lab review the PT results for a specific contract or regulatory requirement? Does your lab review the PT results for a general type of analysis or method (for example metals or ICP)? Have you ever faced a question like this? There is an almost infinite number of ways to combine data. APG is the only PT provider that gives you the flexibility to answer these questions. Analyte Interest Groups are the cornerstones to this flexibility and will be the focus of this article.

What is an Analyte Interest Group?
Simply put, an Analyte Interest Group is nothing more than a collection of analytes. An Analyte Interest Group gives you the ability to create consolidated reports. It is inevitable with any PT provider that you may have to purchase and analyze multiple PT samples to fulfill a lab network's requirements, a department's requirements, a regulator's requirements, a client's requirements, or an analyst's requirements. Once the PT study is complete, you must sift through the entire report to locate specific results. This is no longer necessary with Analyte Interest Groups.

There are two types of analyte interest groups - general and personalized. General Analyte Interest Groups are established by APG's technical department, and are available to all users of the Advantage Reporting Tool. Personalized Analyte Interest Groups are created by you, stored as part of your profile, and available only to you each time you access the Advantage Reporting Tool.

Personalized Analyte Interest Groups
It is a three step process to create/update a Personalized Analyte Interest Group.

1. Select the menu item labeled "Analyte Interest Groups". This menu item is located beneath the "Reporting" main menu.
2. Create a label to identify the group.The choice is yours, but examples could be "Analysis Completed By Bob Smith" or "Analysis Completed By the Organic Department".
3. Select the analytes to be included in the group.

Select the analytes to be included, once the Analyte Interest Group's name is saved. The Personalized Analyte Interest Group will be saved as part of your profile, and will be available throughout the Advantage Reporting Tool.

Using Analyte Interest Groups
Throughout the Advantage Reporting Tool, there is an option at the top of the page to filter results by analyte. The Personalized and General Analyte Interest Groups are always part of this filter. When you select an Analyte Interest Group, only the analytes included in the group will be included in the report.

General Analyte Groups
For your convenience, APG's technical support staff has established a number of General Analyte Interest Groups that are available to all Advantage Reporting Users. No setup is required to utilize these groups. These groups are in addition to any personalized Analyte Interest Groups that you add to your Advantage Reporting Profile. If you have any questions about Analyte Interest Groups or the Advantage Reporting Tool, please contact APG Customer Service at 800.272.4442 or support@apgqa.com.