“Of 57 million deaths in 2005, 10 million were children under five years old—98% of these children were from developing countries,” said Thomas C. Quinn, MD, Director of Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health, at CLSI’s Leadership Conference and Workshop in April.

Over 225 clinical and laboratory professionals, manufacturers, and regulatory and accreditation organization representatives from around the world came together for the CLSI Leadership Conference and Workshop 2-4 April 2008 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

The 2008 Leadership Conference was dedicated to helping volunteers and members understand, participate effectively in, and implement CLSI standards-development initiatives, and offered a variety of opportunities for attendees to network and help define future strategies for the organization. Workshop topics included Controlling Microbial Threats, Population Health, Challenges of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) Testing, Newborn Screening With Tandem Mass Spectrometry, and Noninstrumented Testing in Point-of-Care Settings.

Many attendees were able to take part in breakout sessions and participated in the early stages of document development. Others in the Population Health breakout session shared a global perspective of key issues for the laboratory, as well as challenges and successes in laboratories in Ethiopia, Namibia, and Tanzania.

A strong focus on improving public health through health care testing was shown throughout the workshop. “Ensuring strong laboratory capacity is an essential component of infectious disease control efforts, as the success of any surveillance and response system is dependent upon accurate and timely laboratory diagnosis of causative agents,” said speaker Rima Khabbaz, MD, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The slides from the Leadership Conference and Workshop are available on the CLSI website at www.clsi.org under Education.

For more education programs from CLSI, check out upcoming teleconferences on the website. [ return to top ]