2004 NCCLS Leadership Conference Was a Success

NCCLS had a strong conference 18-20 March 2004 at the Loews L’Enfant Hotel in Washington, D.C. The conference program, dedicated to helping volunteers and members understand, participate effectively in, and implement NCCLS standards-development initiatives, offered a variety of practical solutions for delivery of consistent, high-quality, cost-effective services through the establishment of a quality infrastructure. In addition, NCCLS members and volunteers gathered to network and help define future strategies for the organization.

Comprehensive Conference Program Offered New Initiatives and Practical Solutions

Three days of in-depth, targeted seminars and meetings offered detailed information and solutions for NCCLS initiatives and related topics important to the consensus process. The opportunity for volunteers to network and meet colleagues face-to-face contributed to the conference's overwhelming success.

“The [2004 NCCLS Leadership] Conference provided unique networking and professional opportunities. It is very stimulating to share experiences and hear the challenges faced by the individuals who are working on NCCLS projects. This conference is a much needed annual event providing face-to-face interaction and allowing participants to discuss important NCCLS projects,” comments Daniel W. Tholen, M.S., Dan Tholen Statistical Consulting.

Morichika Tanemura, Secretary General, JCCLS says,"As usual, I was deeply impressed by the way the conference had been so well organized and managed."

“I want to congratulate the NCCLS leadership for the excellent meeting in Washington, D.C. I really enjoyed being part of the conference and being able to participate in some of the sessions,” notes Mathias M. Müller, M.D., IFCC President.  He adds, “The regular meetings between NCCLS and IFCC officers have become a tradition. On the basis of personal contacts, joint projects have been discussed and initiated, and a real partnership has been created. I hope that this relationship will continue to grow in the future.”
 
Highlights of the conference program included:

• The General Session, Quality and Competence in the Medical Laboratory; An Example of Harmonization, provided an overview of the development and application of ISO 15189 and described the practical implementation of quality principle requirements, consistent with ISO 15189, using NCCLS’s quality system documents.
  
  
• The Second Annual Joint Area Committee Session, Consensus Mediation: Practice and Approach, described lessons learned and practical solutions for resolving consensus issues. In addition, an interactive discussion provided recommendations for improving committee appointment procedures; enhancing volunteer participation and recognition; and ensuring clear communication and guidance throughout the project development process.
  
  
• Help Shape NCCLS provided attendees with an opportunity to meet with NCCLS’s officers to discuss current initiatives that affect and influence member/delegate participation, and to help identify ways to facilitate and improve the NCCLS standards-development process. Key recommendations offered in this candid discussion dealt with new opportunities for NCCLS, steps to foster NCCLS support in the top management of member organizations, promoting academic recognition of volunteers for their NCCLS participation, and aggressive promotion of the value of NCCLS documents, especially those documents that are cited in accreditation agencies’ checklists and are recognized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
  
  
• Name Change Update, You Spoke, We Listened, provided background and history on the NCCLS Membership and Marketing Committee’s Brand Identity Analysis, which resulted in a proposed organizational name change. On Sunday, 21 March 2004, the Board of Directors formally approved an organizational name change to Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute. A vote of Active-Member delegates to implement the name change, effective 1 January 2005, is scheduled to take place later this spring.
  
  
• The new Area Committee on Point-of-Care Testing, which met for the first time during the conference, attracted many participants. The meeting was extremely productive resulting in the development of subcommittees to work on revising existing documents, as well as generation of new project proposals to be presented in the near future.
  
  
• “Best practices” for meeting challenges encountered during the development of consensus documents was the focus of the Molecular Methods Subcommittee Chairholders Roundtable. This was a first-of-its-kind session for subcommittee chairholders of molecular methods projects conducted by Ms. Roberta Madej, Vice-Chairholder, and Dr. Russel Enns, Chairholder of the Area Committee on Molecular Methods. The chairholders shared experiences; reviewed NCCLS processes; discussed challenges and ideas for resolving issues; and developed a reference base of best practices that have been successful for fellow subcommittee chairholders.

In addition to NCCLS’s Annual Business Meeting, the Board of Directors, all NCCLS area committees and selected subcommittees, and the U.S. Technical Advisory Group for ISO/TC 212 also met as key elements of the conference program.

Special Events Provided an Ideal Forum to Acknowledge NCCLS Leaders and to Forge Partnerships

• President’s Reception, hosted by Donna M. Meyer, Ph.D., NCCLS President, who finished her term at this year’s conference, offered an opportunity for members and volunteers to mingle and celebrate their participation in NCCLS.
  
  
• As in the past, NCCLS installed newly elected officers and directors at the Member/Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon on Saturday, 20 March 2004. The luncheon provided an opportunity to acknowledge the outstanding and important contributions of NCCLS members and volunteers and served as an appropriate place to recognize the newly elected members of the Board of Directors.

Installed as NCCLS President is Thomas L. Hearn, Ph.D., Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Beginning a two-year term as President Elect is Robert L. Habig, Ph.D., Abbott Laboratories. Wayne Brinster, BD, will serve a three-year term as Secretary. Donna M. Meyer, Ph. D., CHRISTUS Health, was recognized at the conference for her distinguished leadership after completing her two-year term as President. Dr. Hearn, as the new NCCLS President, appointed Klaus E. Stinshoff, Dr.rer.nat., to fill the remaining two years of an unexpired term on the Board of Directors. For complete details about the newly installed Board Officers, read the complete press releases. 

• During the conference, NCCLS signed updated partnership agreements with both JCCLS and IFCC for the mutual goal of providing worldwide consensus standards. Promoting harmonization and a sense of global cohesiveness in standards development is a key strategic priority for NCCLS. The ultimate goal of these partnerships is to improve health care worldwide.

Awards and Honor Roll Pay Tribute to NCCLS Valued Colleagues

• Emil Voelkert, Ph.D. Receives Russell J. Eilers Memorial Award
  Since its creation, the award, presented annually, has recognized leaders whose enthusiasm for, and commitment to, voluntary consensus have furthered the cause of excellence in the healthcare community. This namesake award bears the image of Russell J. Eilers, NCCLS’s founding president, who clearly saw the value of standards developed with a consensus of practicing professionals, government, and industry representatives. The Eilers Award is the highest that NCCLS bestows. This year, NCCLS proudly honored Emil Voelkert, Ph.D., with the award as an expression of gratitude for his commitment to NCCLS and to advancing the principles of voluntary consensus, and for his leadership in promoting global harmonization.

Dr. Voelkert, the architect of NCCLS’s harmonization policy, has had a highly influential role in NCCLS’s evolution as the leading global consensus organization developing standards for medical testing and in vitro diagnostic products.  As a member of the Board of Directors, and Executive Committee, as well as the Board’s Global Programs and Strategic Planning Committees, Dr. Voelkert has effectively guided NCCLS toward fulfillment of its commitment to global harmonization of standards, using international cooperation and strategic partnering as mechanisms to achieve this goal.

As the first member of NCCLS’s Harmonization Team, Dr. Voelkert led the effort within NCCLS to recognize different medical and metrological practices that have evolved in different regions of the world; to understand impediments to successful harmonization; to put in place an organizational policy and operational plan defining NCCLS’s leadership role in harmonization, and to promote that role; to develop resources, including NCCLS’s Harmonization Terminology Database, for NCCLS and professional use to facilitate harmonization; and to establish and strengthen close working relationships among the world’s standards-developing organizations that advance harmonization and support other types of cooperation in standards development. NCCLS looks forward to being the continuing beneficiary of his vision and guidance.

• Stanley Bauer, M.D. and Kenneth D. McClatchey, M.D., D.D.S. Elected to NCCLS’s Honor Roll
  It was with reverence, admiration, and profound respect that the NCCLS Board of Directors elected Stanley Bauer, M.D. and Kenneth D. McClatchey, M.D., D.D.S. to NCCLS’s Honor Roll. This distinction is a memorial to those whose outstanding contributions during their lifetimes helped to establish NCCLS as a leader in improving the quality of medical testing and healthcare services throughout the world.

Dr. Bauer, an innovative pathologist and professional leader, was internationally recognized as one of the foremost authorities on blood-borne infectious disease and its transmission.

In his NCCLS career, Dr. Bauer was actively involved in project development and/or leadership of the Area Committees on Instrumentation, Evaluation Protocols, Clinical Chemistry, Hematology, Microbiology, and Automation, as well as the Council of the National Reference System for the Clinical Laboratory. He chaired the Subcommittees on Protection of Laboratory Workers, Instrument Biohazards, and Electrochemical Methods; served on many other subcommittees; and actively contributed to the Board’s Program Committee and Task Force on Facilitating the Consensus Process.

Dr. Bauer is especially remembered for his efforts to steer NCCLS toward developing standards and guidelines addressing the most critical needs in medical-testing practice, and for his highly effective and timely leadership in developing standards addressing those needs.

Kenneth D. McClatchey, M.D., D.D.S. was a renowned pathologist with a passion for teaching and research. Like NCCLS that he served so well, Dr. McClatchey was committed to making life better for people worldwide. To achieve that goal, he was always in the forefront of new developments, eager to try new techniques and invent new approaches.

Among his many contributions to NCCLS, Dr. McClatchey was an elected member of the Board of Directors for two outstanding terms. A partial list of his active leadership, policy, and standards activities includes service as Chairholder of the Area Committee on General Laboratory Practices, the Subcommittee on Standardization of the Pap Technique, the Subcommittee on Cytologic Techniques, and the Subcommittee on Nongynecologic Specimens; and as a member of the Subcommittee on Cost Accounting, the Subcommittee on Selection and Evaluation of a Referral Laboratory, the Subcommittee on Wellness Testing, the Council of the National Reference System for the Clinical Laboratory, and the International Committee. He served the College of American Pathologists as editor of Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. In past years, he was NCCLS’s official delegate for the college.

Within NCCLS, Dr. McClatchey is especially remembered for his early and strong advocacy of NCCLS’s global scope, structure, and leadership, a program structure and status that NCCLS has successfully achieved and that focuses on promoting quality medical testing around the world.
 
The election of Dr. Bauer and Dr. McClatchey to the NCCLS Honor Roll recognizes and extends their outstanding volunteer contributions and leadership on behalf of NCCLS and the public. 

NCCLS Honor Roll Fund

In memorium of those elected to the Honor Roll, the NCCLS Honor Roll Fund has been established in their names. This fund has been created through the organizational and individual gifts donated in memory of those whose outstanding contributions during their lifetimes put NCCLS at the forefront of efforts to improve the quality of medical testing in the United States and throughout the world. Investment income from the NCCLS Honor Roll fund is used to foster innovative, creative, or humanitarian projects consistent with the NCCLS mission. Donations to the Honor Roll Fund in memory of Stanley Bauer, M.D. and Kenneth D. McClatchey, M.D., D.D.S. may be made through NCCLS’s Executive Offices.

View the 2004 NCCLS Leadership Conference Photo Gallery.

Watch for future editions of NCCLS eNews for more details on the 2005 NCCLS Leadership Conference!
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