An important message came through loud and clear during the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) whirlwind visit to China this month: China is determined to strengthen its food safety system.

The four following anecdotes carry a similar message. They should seriously alarm city, state, and country leaders everywhere.

I have a birthday coming up and wanted to share a wealth of statistics about birthdays that you may find entertaining. First is the “birthday problem.” Some of you probably encountered this one in a statistics class at some point.

Although best practices and management systems behind quality management have remained consistent for decades, the systems and solutions used to ensure the production and delivery of high-quality products and processes have changed drastically.

In July 2008, the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament agreed to provide a legal framework that creates one monopoly in each member state o

Many companies struggle with the best way to think about and incorporate the cost of quality into operations.

Despite the efforts and misfortunes of Copernicus, Galileo, and other famous astronomers to convince us that the world is not the center of the universe, the quality “solar system” remains stubbornly geocentric—that is, top-management-centric.

Ron Behrens, an old friend and colleague, recently replied to my invitation to share examples of the intelligent use of statistics, such as that used in our Six Sigma projects. I asked for stories, some data, and some statistical analyses.

I’ve had a varied and interesting career, having lived and worked in the Middle East and West Africa.

It’s clear that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should have more compounding pharmacy oversight, but how long will it take them to make other important decisions on public health?