Stephen MacDonald moves on from consideration of the various factors that need investigation before implementation of an assay, to focus here on data collection, basic graphing techniques, and some routine statistical methods.
In the first three articles in this series we focused on designing the method comparison study, and what we need to consider to evidence comparability robustly. In the next three articles we will move onto quantitative data. This will involve setting up data collection before we get to analysis.
We mentioned previously that preparation of the study comprises 80% of the work. If done right, the analysis stage is simple, if not it can be very difficult and take a disproportionate length of time. This is particularly true if coming back to the data after a short break, and even more so if some poor, unfortunate individual is tasked with picking up the analysis from where you left off.
To this end we will begin with my suggestion of a framework for setting up data analysis in the laboratory. This applies to any data analysis, not just method comparisons. To supplement this article, I have developed an online course, available at pathologymu.com. There are two for this article, and they are both free to readers of Pathology in Practice. Please send feedback if you find them useful.
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