A few weeks ago I blogged about New Year resolutions and declared resolution #1: A New Attitude.  Every month in 2011 I will declare a new resolution and for February it is to get LEAN and share the process with all of you.  This may sound like a typical resolution to loose weight (that would be nice too), however I am referring to Lean in the form of Six Sigma for healthcare.

I am very excited to announce that I have been accepted into a Villanova University Six Sigma Black Belt Master Certification program with a focus in healthcare.  My program begins March 1 and it will be a 32 week online program broken up into three distinct courses:

• Six Sigma Green Belt Healthcare: Effectively collect and analyze data, lead and execute process-level improvement projects, apply critical skills necessary to successfully lead project teams, and generate incremental revenue opportunities.
• Lean Six Sigma: Apply Lean Six Sigma in any type of business or industry. Create a shorter cycle time for production, implement faster response time for services, and lower costs to provide products and services. Improve customer satisfaction and increase productivity from fewer resources.
• Lean Six Sigma Black Belt: Master the Six Sigma core concepts and measure process inputs that affect customer satisfaction. Analyze process parameters using statistical and non-statistical techniques including how to lead and coach quality improvement initiatives. Understand variation and process behavior.

The use of Lean/Six Sigma methods for process improvements in biopharma, clinical, and anatomic pathology is growing in popularity and will become even more important as digital pathology solutions are integrated into the AP workflow.  Improvement in quality, productivity, and a reduction in costs are essential to justify the use of digital pathology for clinical use. In an article from the Dark Daily titled “Lean and New Diagnostic Technologies Fuel Innovations at the Pathology Department at University of Nebraska-Omaha” lab manager David Muirfield said,

…the anatomic pathology department is now capable of reporting a significant number of cases on a same-day basis. The ongoing quality improvement program is delivering continual improvements in turnaround time and quality. The increased productivity also produces worthwhile cost savings.

Six Sigma’s data-driven approach and methodology for eliminating defects combined with the Lean Six Sigma teaching of Total Quality Management (TQM) will be very beneficial to all my customers and produce significant savings.  According to the Six Sigma Academy, professionals with Black Belt certification save companies approximately $230,000 per project and can complete four to six projects per year. For example, General Electric saved $10 billion during its first five years of Six Sigma implementation.

I look forward to sharing my certification process and publishing new knowledge about the use of Six Sigma/Lean in laboratory medicine and for digital pathology.  I hope you will find the the information helpful too!