The nice people at Wesgard QC sent their update today. You can read it by clicking here. I did. I’d suggest you do to, but I’ve got a degree in maths and I found it heavy going.
The headline “Has hematology quality
bled out?” caught my eye, but has it? I’d have to take Mr. Westgard’s word
for it if he says it has. The British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli was believed
to have ranted about "Lies, damned lies, and statistics" when
describing the deceptive power of numbers to bolster weak arguments. He might
have a point here, he might not. I don’t know.
Looking back in time to yesterday I
think I might have made my own (albeit informal) Westgard rule… due to a
minor problem the details of which are irrelevant here we had to leave
non-urgent blood films over the bank holiday weekend, and yesterday I spent the
afternoon catching up. A few patients who were clinically stable had blood
films made every day (the reasons for which are irrelevant here), and as
I reviewed the blood films I noticed that the results didn’t change much from
day to day. That’s not a bad QC measure, is it?
