Use Excel Copilot to Analyze Your QC Data
For Radiologic Technologists ·
What This Does
Excel Copilot takes your raw QC measurement data, exposure indices, kV readings, phantom scores, and automatically generates trend charts and flags values outside ACR control limits, turning a compliance checkbox into a real quality tool.
Before You Start
- Microsoft 365 subscription with Copilot (personal plans include it for the subscription owner; work accounts usually need the Microsoft 365 Copilot license)
- Your QC data already in an Excel spreadsheet (dates in one column, measurements in others)
- Basic QC data from at least 4-6 weeks for trends to be meaningful
Steps
1. Open your QC spreadsheet
Open your existing Excel QC log. Make sure your data is in a clean table: dates in Column A, measurement types in columns B, C, D etc. Each row = one day's entry.
What you should see: A table of dates and numeric values with column headers.
2. Select your data and open Copilot
Select your data table (click any cell in the table, then press Ctrl+A to select all). Then click the Copilot icon in the lower-right corner of the Excel window.
Microsoft moved Copilot off the Home ribbon in 2026; the corner button is now the one entry point. Press F6 to reach it from the keyboard, or right-click the corner button and choose Move to ribbon if you prefer the old placement.
Troubleshooting: If you don't see Copilot, go to File → Account and verify your Microsoft 365 subscription includes Copilot. On personal plans it's included from Microsoft 365 Personal ($9.99/mo) up, for the subscription owner only.
3. Ask Copilot to create a trend chart
In the Copilot chat panel on the right, type:
Create a line chart showing the trend for each measurement column over time. Use the date column as the X axis.
Copilot will generate a chart and insert it into your spreadsheet.
4. Ask Copilot to flag out-of-control values
Type in the Copilot panel:
Add conditional formatting to highlight any value in columns B and C that is more than 10% above or below the column average. Use red for values outside that range.
What you should see: Problem data points highlighted in red, immediately visible in your QC table.
5. Ask for a summary
Type: "Summarize the trends in this QC data in 3 bullet points. Note any columns that are trending up or down over time."
Copilot will write a plain-language summary you can paste into a monthly QC report.
Real Example
Scenario: You've been logging CT exposure index (EI) values daily for 3 months. Your ACR accreditation review is next month and you need to show your QC data is in control.
What you ask Copilot: "Show me if the Exposure Index column is trending up or down over the past 3 months and flag any values more than 20% above our target EI of 400."
What you get: A clear line chart, red-highlighted outlier dates, and a sentence like "EI values have been stable with 3 outliers in January, all on the same day, suggesting a single positioning issue."
Tips
- Even a basic 30-day QC dataset gives Copilot enough to find trends
- Save your Copilot-generated chart as a PNG (right-click → Save as Image) to paste into accreditation reports
- Ask Copilot "What's missing from this QC log?" for suggestions on additional metrics to track
Tool interfaces change, if Copilot has moved, look for the Copilot icon in the lower-right corner of the window or press F6.