Article written by Michael Haller, Quality Manager, Analytical Products Group
Complete article from Edition 34 APG eNewsletter
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This article is the fourth in the series highlighting The Advantage Reporting Tool.
The first article, published in the March Newsletter, discussed the foundation of The Advantage Reporting Tool.
The second article, published in the May Newsletter, discussed the Certification Map.
The third article, published in the June Newsletter, discussed the Performance Map.
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A “Quick Refresher”
on the Advantage Reporting Tool
A few months has past since I last wrote about the Advantage Reporting so let’s have a quick refresher.
The Advantage Reporting Tool provides tabular and graphical presentation of your APG proficiency testing data since 1999.
At APGQA.com, you can securely view graphs, maps and detailed information to manage your certifications and data quality.
The Power of Time
One data point is a snapshot of an isolated point in time. Many factors can be at work during this isolated analysis.
Are these factors related? Are these factors leading to a pattern of inconsistent results?
It is impossible to determine this from a single proficiency test.
Combining data points over time can uncover patterns in performance.
Other PT Providers may show you study results but only APG has the capability to truly illustrate trends in your data.
The Analyte Trend Page is where APG shows you this power of time.
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Value of Trending
The Analyte Trend is available from the Advantage Reporting
Tool’s Trend Homepage which can be found under the Reporting Main Menu. It is also available by clicking on an analyte name in the Performance Map,
Certification Map or the Study Analyte Detail.
Once you have
located the Analyte Trend, select an analyte name. For the
following example, we will select “Lead”. The page will reload
and show you summary and graphical comparisons of your results
as compared to interlaboratory performance for the past two
years. Under the analyte name, you can adjust the timeframe of
the report to include data anywhere from the past six months
to all data since 1999.
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By default, the Analyte Trend does not show the actual data that was used to generate the graphs and summaries.
Click the “Show Data” link to provide a tabular listing of the data points used to generate the page.
If you have ever
printed web pages directly from your Internet browser, you
will appreciate the print to pdf feature. Click the “Print
PDF” link at anytime to print the active page as a PDF. The
print-quality PDFs that are generated can be shared with upper
level management or given to departments to show them the
performance of an analyte.
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Value of Trending
The second half of the Analyte Trend is dedicated to graphically comparing your results to the interlaboratory median ZScore and
interlaboratory percent recovery. You can see from the graphs below that the example laboratory is producing data that is
consistent and comparable to the interlaboratory values.
Notice in the previous sentence that I wrote “consistent” and “comparable”.
Consistency is an important aspect of repeatability (and loosely the precision of the data).
Comparability is an important aspect of the defensibility of data. Some laboratories place more weight on data consistency while
other labs place more focus on data comparability.
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Value of Trending
The percent recovery and Zscores graphs are valuable tools for identifying trends and monitoring quality.
Analyte trends can:
| | • | Verify the effectiveness of corrective action. |
| | • | Identify potential unacceptable evaluations before they occur. |
| | • | Confirm that a unacceptable evaluations is not an indication of normal performance. |
| | • | Highlight areas of consistently excellent or poor performance. |
The following example shows a laboratory that consistently performed poorly on Antimony from August 2003 to August 2004.
In the third quarter of 2004, the laboratory sent an analysts to a training class and identified areas for improvement with
their Antimony method. Were their actions effective? The laboratory ran a series of quick turnaround PT STAT samples to
validate their system – personnel, instrumentation and methods. The labs performance is definitely more consistent from the end
of 2004 to the present as you can see from the graph below.
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The Analyte Trend page is a
valuable part of the Advantage Reporting system that can help
you monitor your performance over time. If you have any
questions about any part of the Advantage Reporting System or
the Analyte Trend, please send me an email or give me a call
at 800.272.4442.
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