An interactive computer simulation program for the design of statistical control procedures in clinical chemistry.
A computer simulation program has been developed to aid in the design of statistical quality control procedures in clinical chemistry. This 'QC simulator' permits the user to study the effects of parameters in the analytical procedure (method standard deviation, components of variance, rounding of data) and parameters in the control procedure (choice of statistics, control limits, decision criteria, number of control observations). The performance of the control procedures being studied are characterized by their probability for ejection, estimated at several different levels of random and systematic error, and presented by plots of statistical power vs the size of the analytical errors. The relative performance of different control procedures can be compared based on these performance characteristics. Another important application of the program is in the design of control procedures to assure that a specified level of analytical quality is achieved in routine laboratory analyses. The utility of this interactive simulation tool is illustrated in two typical sample runs.
D002624:Chemistry, Clinical; D003201:Computers; D011786:Quality Control