NEW! More C diff identified with molecular lab technology
A study from the microbiology lab at Lifespan hospitals has found that some lab tests are more accurate in identifying Clostridium difficile toxin infection (CDI). The findings indicate that a molecular method detects up to 50% more cases of C diff than other methods. While molecular technology is more expensive, it allows for more cases to be identified and assists in patient safety efforts within the hospital in terms of preventing hospital-acquired CDI. The study is published online in the July issue of the Journal of Molecular Diagnostics. Read more here.

NEW! Enter the 2011 Best Short Video Contest
The Intersociety Council for Pathology Information (ICPI) invites you to participate in its annual video contest. Send a short (~3 min.) video that promotes "Pathology as a career" to medical students. The top filmmaker will receive a $1,000 cash reward, plus the winning video will be featured on the ICPI website. Deadline for video submissions is Sept. 15, 2011. Click here for contest rules.

NEW! Focus on quality-management systems at Lab Quality Confab
Lab Quality Confab and Process Improvement Institute, Nov. 15-16, 2011, is an annual gathering dedicated to advancing the knowledge, skills, and effectiveness of process improvement and quality-management practitioners in diagnostic medicine. Programs, information, and training are designed for every level of manager and all levels of knowledge and experience. Diagnostic medicine, particularly the services of clinical laboratory, pathology, imaging, and radiology, make up the primary emphasis of the 5th Annual Lab Quality Confab and Process Improvement Institute at the Hyatt Regency in San Antonio, TX. Learn more here.

NEW! Learn the building blocks of a quality lab
The 7th annual North Carolina Clinical Laboratory Day program, “Building Blocks of a Quality Laboratory: A Foundation for Success,” features a variety of expert speakers to discuss the many aspects of running a quality laboratory, including regulation compliance, CLIA basics, lab safety, and motivating employees. The event will take place Friday, Oct. 7, 2011, in Raleigh, NC, at Wake Tech Community College. For more information, contact patricia.atwood@dhhs.nc.gov. Register online at www.quia.com/sv/525665.html.

• BS degree or higher for MT certification
• Certification recognized nationally and internationally
• Exams accredited by NCCA
• Opportunities for leadership, networking and lifelong learning

NEW! Mayo Clinic offers phlebotomy conference
“Phlebotomy 2011: Innovations in Quality, Service and Patient Care,” takes place Oct. 6-7, at the Kahler Grand Hotel, Rochester, MN. This two-day conference for phlebotomists, phlebotomy educators, and management staff provides insight into the importance of providing quality service to customers and ensuring a quality-management system is put into practice and maintained. Learn more here.

NEW! Lab Tests Online featured on Doctor Radio
Doctor Radio, the SiriusXM Satellite Radio network, featured a 30-minute segment on Lab Tests Online. D. Robert Dufour, MD, executive editor of Lab Tests Online, responded to questions from the show’s host and from callers. The June 27 interview program was arranged as part of AACC’s campaign to celebrate Lab Tests Online’s 10th anniversary and to expand awareness of the lab testing field. During the interview, Dufour discussed the meaning of reference ranges and explained how biomarkers are used. Learn more here.

HOT CLIPS: POINT-OF-CARE TESTING
Readers often remark that they love to “clip” various items from the print pages of MLO. And because MLO covers a myriad of laboratory-related topics, we share a continuing LABline feature: Hot Clips. Check out the “Top 10” MLO archival properties concerning point-of-care testing.

• “Managing QC and compliance with automated POCT management,” July 2011
• “Has the answer to diagnosing TB in resource-limited settings been found?” March 2011
• “Darkfield microscopy for POC syphilis diagnosis,” January 2011
• “POCT key to widespread access to healthcare,” January 2011
• “Hospital lauds its point-of-care testing success,” September 2010
• “Labs adjust to POCTs,” October 2009
• “Demand for POCT rises,” September 2009
• “Acute-care testing at the point of care: now and in the future,” August 2009
• “Pieces of the POCT puzzle,” June 2009
• “Disasters require POCT technology,” April 2009

Readers may want to scan MLO’s archives for more information on point-of-care because any tips published might help your laboratory improve its performance when employing point-of-care instruments.

July is GBS Awareness Month
Despite substantial progress in prevention of perinatal group B streptococcal (GBS) disease since the 1990s, GBS remains the leading cause of early-onset neonatal sepsis in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released the 2010 Guidelines for the Prevention of Perinatal Group B Streptococcal (GBS) Disease. The key changes in the 2010 guidelines include expanded recommendations on laboratory methods for the identification of GBS, and clarification of the colony-count threshold required for reporting GBS detected in the urine of pregnant women.
Learn more here.

Fatal dose of insulin linked to test discrepancy
A patient died after being given a high dose of insulin at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Salisbury Township, PA, says the Pennsylvania Department of Health. According to an April 8 report, insulin was administered in connection with a discrepancy between a blood-serum test and a blood-glucose test strip. The report indicates a nurse failed to tell doctors that the results from the bedside blood-glucose testing strip differed significantly from lab tests of the patient’s blood, and the patient remained on an insulin drip for 10 hours before the patient was found in an “unresponsive coma” as a result of “prolonged hypoglycemia,” The Morning Call reports. Health officials say a failure to communicate played a role in the death. The hospital later discovered the glucose testing strips were faulty, according to the report. Learn more here.

UCLA opens biodefense laboratory
The University of California-Los Angeles opened a new laboratory in May that could support the medical response to a bioterror incident or natural-disease outbreak. The 6,000-square-foot, $32 million lab will increase the speed of receiving, testing, and analyzing samples by automating much of the process. During a crisis, the UCLA Global Bio Lab will be capable of analyzing thousands of samples each day. The facility also is intended to help provide education for those in training to become public health workers. Learn more here.

The Joint Commission, ASCP, API to streamline lab accreditation
The Lab Advantage program is designed to be one-stop shopping for laboratories looking for accreditation, education, and proficiency testing products and services. Lab Advantage is a convergence of the American Society for Clinical Pathology’s (ASCP) education and assessment products, the American Proficiency Institute’s (API) proficiency testing and management services, and The Joint Commission’s accreditation of laboratory processes. Learn more here.

Deadly infection likely came from hot tub
According to a report in the April issue of Infection, a 49-year-old German woman had symptoms of pneumonia and presented at an emergency room two days after returning home from a stay at a hotel in Austria. Pseudomonas aeruginosa was found in her blood and respiratory specimens, and she died after nine days of hospitalization. Water samples from the hotel hot tub used by the patient revealed 37,000 colony-forming units of P aeruginosa per milliliter. Further tests showed that the bacteria from the water sample and from the patient’s specimens were closely related. Read more here.

Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals receive gift of VeinViewers
Christie Medical Innovations has donated 10 VeinViewer vascular imaging devices to Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals as part of Walmart’s annual in-store fundraising campaign for the charity. VeinViewer uses harmless near-infrared light and other patented technologies to project a real-time digital image of subcutaneous vasculature directly onto the surface of the skin to assist in IV starts and blood draws. Learn more here.

Hospital labs and pharmacies can provide early flu warning
Monitoring the patterns in hospital labs and pharmacies is a useful and timely way to gauge local flu activity, according to an observational study. Researchers from the Detroit Medical Center used this system during the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic to analyze the results of rapid flu tests and osteltamivir prescriptions. In a study published in the July issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the researchers compared the trends with surveillance data from the Michigan Department of Community Health and found that flu-like illness tracked closely with the percentage of positive lab tests and oseltamivir prescriptions. Read more here.

Emory University launches interactive map of impact of HIV
The Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University launched AIDSVu, an interactive online map that, 30 years into the epidemic, provides for the most detailed publicly available view of the number of people living with an HIV diagnosis in the United States by state and county. AIDSVu links state and county-level HIV prevalence data with local HIV testing sites, information about state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs, and estimates of the percentage of HIV diagnoses that are made late in the course of the disease. AIDSVu will be updated as new data and information become available. Read more here.

NJ hospital creates mobile app to deliver lab test results to physicians
Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck, NJ, has created an original computer application that allows its doctors instant access to their patients’ entire electronic health record, as well as direct phone links to a patient’s nurse and emergency contact person via iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, and other mobile devices. Using MicroHIS, a Holy Name physician can view lab and radiology reports, vital signs, and other aspects of the medical record as soon as the results are posted to the Medical Center’s computer system. Abnormal test results are flagged. Learn more here.

Free online safety training
OSHAcademy offers free online safety and health training. Topics include safety committee meeting management, Occupational Safety and Health Association recordkeeping, accident investigation, hazard analysis, personal protection equipment, fire prevention, emergency management, ergonomics, and more. Learn more here.

CDC issues updated bloodstream infection prevention guidelines
New guidelines, released by the CDC and the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) outline steps to eliminate catheter-related bloodstream infections (CRBSIs), which are among the most deadly and costly healthcare-associated infections. A focus on preventing CRBSIs, specifically central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs), has proven to be effective in improving patient safety. A recent CDC report showed a 58% decrease in CLABSIs among hospital intensive-care unit patients in 2009, compared to 2001. To read “Guidelines for the Prevention of Intravascular Catheter-Related Infections,” go to www.cdc.gov/hicpac.

UMass Memorial integrates online diabetes management and EHR
Worchester’s UMass Memorial, clinical partner of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, has integrated MCT Clinical, a Web-based diabetes management system from MyCareTeam, with the Allscripts electronic health record (EHR) solution used by UMass Memorial’s physicians in ambulatory settings. MCT Clinical allows individuals with type 1 or type 2 diabetes and their care providers to collaborate and monitor glucose levels, insulin dosage, carbohydrates consumed, exercise history, and other factors known to affect glycemic control. The software allows patients to download their blood glucose readings to MCT Clinical from the majority of commercially available meters through a secure, HIPAA-compliant Web-based application from any computer with Internet access. The data is then imported and presented in the appropriate place and time within the caregiver’s EHR workflow.

31% of people 50 years and older have never been screened for colon cancer
Results from a nationwide research poll released by the Colon Cancer Alliance and Quest Diagnostics show that 31% of men and women age 50 years and over have never been screened for colon cancer by standard screening methods such as a colonoscopy, fecal occult blood tests (FOBT), and fecal immunochemical tests (FIT). Read more here.

APIC announces film festival winners
Dozens of creative videos that address the impact of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and the role of healthcare personnel in protecting patients were entered in the film competition at the 38th Annual Educational Conference and International Meeting of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC). Winners include:

• “Hands” depicts the tragedy and irony of HAIs, transforming the statistics into a story of a patient who gets an infection.
• “Clean Hands Save Lives” features a message repeated in different languages.
• “Wash’em” shows how to clean hands to the beat of “Whip it” by Devo.
• “H1N1 – Avoid da Chill” features staff in sunglasses and pig noses rapping about preventing the flu.

• the scope of the laboratory workforce and the availability of jobs;
• the need for funding for laboratory training programs that would help prepare qualified, trained laboratorians to fill those available positions; and
• the need to reauthorize the WIA that ASCP maintains should offer financial assistance to two- and four-year academic programs that train laboratory professionals.

TO VIEW AN UPDATED LIST OF UPCOMING CONFERENCES, MEETINGS, EVENTS, AND WEBINARS, CLICK HERE.

The 2011 MLO Media Handbook is now online at www.mlo-online.com.

“Of all the self-fulfilling prophecies in our culture,
the assumption that
aging means decline and poor health
is probably the deadliest. ”
—Marilyn Ferguson,
author of “The Aquarian Conspiracy”
1938 – 2008

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