CLSI eNews - 1 September 2007 (Plain Text Version)

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News
Executive Vice President's Message
Volunteer Focus
CLSI Volunteers Help Improve Tanzania’s Laboratories
CLSI Member Irwin Army Community Hospital Wins Laboratory of the Year Award
New Specimen Collection Quick Guides
Introducing Key to Quality Checklists
Announcement: New CLSI Catalog 2 - 2007
Press Releases
Standards Status
Vote and Deadlines
Recently Approved Documents
Call for Nominations
Events and Exhibits
Upcoming Events
Upcoming Presentations
CLSI Meetings Calendar
Participate in CLSI
Volunteer
New and Sustaining Members
Update Your Subscription

Executive Vice President's Message

Living our Global Mission–Just Do It

Just do it. You’re probably familiar with this slogan, made popular by a famous shoemaker, but it’s also increasingly how Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) is operating from a global perspective. With a clear organizational mandate and strong commitment from our Board of Directors and Global Advisory Committee, our global mission is becoming a reality. The following are examples of the progress CLSI has made in fulfilling our mission beyond traditional North American boundaries.

Key volunteers and staff traveled to Beijing, China for a successful ISO/TC 212 meeting in May 2007.
Dr. Gerry Hoeltge, CLSI President-Elect, just returned from Tokyo, Japan. He delivered a keynote address to the Japanese Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (JCCLS), met with government officials to discuss advancing health care in Japan, negotiated an enhanced partnership agreement with JCCLS, and met key clinical laboratory and industry leaders.
CLSI just received the renewal notice for the third year of funding for our cooperative agreement in support of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), administered through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This year, we have received increased funding for our efforts to enhance laboratory quality in four countries. Here are some specific updates:

o Tanzania

Five CLSI volunteers and staff recently returned from a 10-day trip throughout Tanzania to prepare its five major zonal laboratories for international accreditation and finalize the details for opening the National Quality Assurance and Training Center. I would like to acknowledge the tremendous efforts of Dr. Michael Noble, Anne Daley, Dr. Carlyn Collins, Sheila Woodcock, and Sally Ondiek.

o Namibia

I will travel with our Project Director, Sally Ondiek to establish CLSI’s scope of work for the coming year and begin integration of our programs with those already in place in this southwestern African country of two million people.

o Nigeria

In early October, three volunteers and staff will attend a one-week meeting with senior CDC Nigeria and Ministry of Health officials to define CLSI’s scope of work and begin our efforts. Also attending this meeting will be representatives from our partner organizations, the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) and American Society for Microbiology (ASM).

o Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast)

We have initiated telephone discussions and are in the initial stages of planning our first trip to Cote d’Ivoire.

In addition to the JCCLS agreement, we are currently working to enhance our already strong relationships with the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry (IFCC) and the International Federation of Biomedical Laboratory Sciences (IFBLS), and we have initiated a number of other promising discussions with other like-minded organizations.

Our global strategy continues to be consistent with everything we do: To develop globally relevant best practice standards, guidelines, and companion products that improve the quality of clinical and laboratory services worldwide. Certainly as important, CLSI demonstrates its values of excellence, responsiveness, inclusiveness, and fairness in an open and transparent fashion. CLSI is a great organization and I think we should all take justifiable pride in our current global progress.

As always, you can e-mail me anytime at gfine@clsi.org.

Glen