CLSI Announces To Your Good Health Workshop

Main Category: Conferences
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 05 Mar 2008 - 2:00 PDT

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Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) will hold a workshop titled To Your Good Health as a component of its 2008 CLSI Leadership Conference, Wednesday, 2 April 2008 in Baltimore, Maryland. The workshop and breakout sessions will focus on challenges and advancements in public health initiatives such as improving quality of life, increasing life expectancy, reducing worldwide infant and child mortality, and eliminating or reducing communicable diseases like HIV/AIDS.

Clinical and laboratory professionals, manufacturers representatives from regulatory and accrediting organizations, students, and educators will learn how to clarify the epidemiologic aspects and implementation issues for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) screening programs. They will also hear how to minimize errors and enhance the quality of noninstrumented point-of-care testing, improve the quality of life of newborns using the latest screening technology, and expand global standardized quality laboratory best practices.

Cassandra D. Salgado, MD, MS, Medical University of South Carolina, who will speak about MRSA Screening Programs, describes the session as an opportunity to "provide education for health care professionals regarding the impact of MRSA on the health care system." Specifically, it will highlight available measures for prevention and control of this worrisome organism, including the role of the clinical microbiology laboratory. Dr. Salgado's session is one of a lineup of sessions and breakout sessions covering a range of important public health topics.

The following sessions will be included in the workshop:

Controlling Microbial Threats: New Approaches and Ongoing Challenges
Speaker: Rima Khabbaz, MD, Director of the National Center for Preparedness, Detection, and Control of Infectious Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Population Health From a Global Perspective
Speakers: Charlotte A. Gaydos, MT, MS, MPH, DrPH, Associate Professor of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University
Thomas C. Quinn, MHS, MD, Professor, Johns Hopkins University, Director, Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health

Challenges of MRSA Testing, Surveillance, and Treatment
Speaker: Cassandra D. Salgado, MD, MS, Medical University of South Carolina

Screening by Tandem Mass Spectrometry
Speaker: David S. Millington, PhD, Duke University Medical Center

Quality Practices for Noninstrumented Testing in All Point-of-Care Settings
Speakers: James H. Nichols, PhD, DABCC, FACB, Baystate Medical Center
Sheldon Campbell, MD, PhD, FCAP, VAMC West Haven Center
The day begins with breakfast, a morning workshop, lunch, four afternoon breakout sessions, and ends with a member and volunteer appreciation and 40th anniversary awards dinner.

For additional information on CLSI or to register for the workshop, visit CLSI's website at http://www.clsi.org.

CLSI, formerly NCCLS, is a global, nonprofit, membership-based organization dedicated to developing standards and guidelines for the health care and medical testing community. CLSI's unique consensus process facilitates the creation of standards and guidelines that are reliable, practical, and achievable for an effective quality system.

Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute