MultiQC
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Medical
Laboratory
Quality Control Software |
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MultiQC is a Windows software application for quality
control in clinical chemistry laboratories. It was
created by a chemical pathologist disappointed with the
heterogeneity, the inappropriate design and the poor
efficiency of the ancillary QC programmes supplied with
analyzers or LIS. The daily investigation of issues
arising at the workbench combined with the great
improvements in industrial QC for the last three decades
led to MultiQC, a programme which provides technicians
with a comprehensive control panel to monitor and improve
the quality of analytical processes.
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| QC driven by
capability indices |
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| QC in
clinical chemistry is aimed at keeping analytical
uncertainty within medical tolerance at the
lowest cost to achieve the most profitable
zero-defect laboratory production. The difficulty
of the task is reliant on the relative extents of
tolerance and uncertainty intervals. The
capability indice is the ratio of the former to
the latter. It decides on the best way to perform
QC : |
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- Low
capability methods : Quality control is
essential to keep them in-control.
- High capability methods : They
may perform out-of-control and produce
however acceptable results. An acceptance chart (pdf file 130 KB) should
be prefered because it saves time and cuts costs
in comparison to control charts.
- Incapable methods : They must
be improved or discarded. |
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| Up-to-date
statistical tools |
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In
addition to Shewhart (Levey and Jennings) charts,
MultiQC implements more recent statistical tools: |
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- Exponentially
weighted moving average (EWMA) to monitor the
bias
- Exponentially weighted moving variance (EWMV)
to monitor the imprecision
- Multivariate process control (Hotelling's T2)
to monitor multi-level quality control.
- Calibration charts, a new approach to the
analysis of QC data. |
| MultiQC
disregards the old "Westgard rules"
formerly brought in as a standard for clinical
laboratories but which turned out to be totally
inappropriate to today's analysers. Read : Misconceptions in medical
laboratory quality control (pdf file 610 KB). |
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| Versatile QC
methods and parameter modes |
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QC methods
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Parameter
modes
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| Non
statistical |
1)
Control intervals specified by the reagent maker |
Univariate
Multivariate
Acceptance |
2)
Statistics estimated from a reference pool |
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Specified statistics |
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Learning mode when a new analyte is started |
| 5) Semi-learnig
mode when a new lot of control materials is
started |
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| Plotting QC data
and EQA returns on the same chart |
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MultiQC plots
external quality assessment (EQA) returns
superimposed on the same charts as QC data. The
position of the lab in comparison to the peer
group is thus made permanently visible by the
involved staff for an easy and complete follow-up
of the analytical process (precision and
trueness). |
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| A built-in
management for changes of QC material batches |
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When it is
necessary to switch to a new lot of QC material,
control charts can be temporarily duplicated to
keep the analytical method under control of the
older batch while a reference pool is collected
for the newer batch. See the flash demo : Starting a new batch of
control materials.
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| Monitoring the time
of QC |
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MultiQC can
monitor whether QC assays have been performed in
compliance with a timetable specific to each
analyte. When QC assays have been missed the
program opens a warning window which displays a
list of the missing tests and sends out a
customizable music. |
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| Continuous method
validation |
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| MultiQC
provides tools to continuously evaluate the
performance characteristics of each analytical
method that it controls. A unique feature is that
performance is always related to medically
allowed error. The resulting data and plots are
stored within QC charts as "analytical
events", easy to consult to troubleshoot
out-of-control situations or bad EQA returns. |
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1) Verifying
the reportable range : MultiQC includes
an original linearity software which takes the
place of the former "LinChecker"
software by the same author. Several years of
practice have demonstrated that the linearity
protocol EP6-A by the CLSI / NCCLS is not
appropriate to the practical needs of clinical
chemistry laboratories. |
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- Read a
discussion about analytical linearity : Verifying the reportable
range (pdf
file 240 KB)
- Sample linearity
report
(pdf file, 65 KB).
- See the flash demo : Verifying the reportable
range. |
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2) Method
comparison : An improved version of the
former "Method Validator" software by
the same author is included in MultiQC. It bases
comparison of analytical methods on medically
allowed tolerance. Classical regression tools
(ordinary linear regression, Deming regression,
weighted Deming regression, Passing-Bablok
regression) and the difference plot (modified
Bland-Altman) are implemented. |
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- Read a
discussion about method comparison : Method comparison (pdf file 170 KB)
- Sample comparison
report
(pdf file, 70 KB).
- See the flash demo : Comparison of analytical
methods. |
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3) Repeatability
verification : Estimating repeatability by
replicated assays of the same sample is the first
action to perform to troubleshoot an analytical
issue. MultiQC saves histograms and coefficients
of variation to facilitate the follow-up of each
analytical method. |
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- See the flash
demo : Verifying
repeatability. |
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| Snapshot of the
main screen |
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| Click the picture
to enlarge |
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| Direct acquisition
of QC and EQA data |
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Results of QC
assays and EQA returns can be entered into
MultiQC by hand either analyte by analyte or
grouped into profiles. A better way is direct acquisition without keyboarding. |
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The user manual of MultiQC6 (pdf file, 2 MB, 96 pages)
is included in the installation package, but it
can be separately downloaded before deciding to
install the programme. |
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Make sure that
MultiQC6 can fit your needs. Download the installation package of MultiQC6 (version 6.0.4.3) with its
user manual (exe file, 4.47 MB). This is the full
version of MultiQC with nothing disabled except a
60-day time limitation. After logging in Windows
as an administrator or a poweruser, launch the
setup file to proceed to installation and follow
the instructions.
Read more about laboratory networks.
Note for users of Windows 2000.
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MultiQC6 is
released under the shareware concept. Buy MultiQC
only after a free 60-day evaluation period, when
you're sure it meets your need. At any time
during or after your 60-day period you can purchase a license and keep on using your QC
data. Updates are free for a full version cycle. |
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To upgrade from a
lower versison 6, simply install the latest
version over the previous one. The new one takes
the place of the former one, letting QC data
unchaged. History of versions
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© Philippe Marquis, MD
Metz - FRANCE
info@multiqc.com
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