Quality

Labs are Vital

Monday, 04 August 2008

Quality

Originally posted on August 8th, 2006

One last report on the AACC/ASCLS conference.

Jeffrey R. Binder, President, Abbott Diagnostics What do you get when you combine techno music, pulsing neon light, flashing LED badges, Lance Armstrong-style rubber wristbands, a free buffet, and five open bars?

Labs Are Vital. The Abbott launch of a truly important initiative.

Jeffrey R. Binder, President of Abbott Diagnostics and Senior Vice President of Operations for Abbott, announced a new program to address the biggest problem facing the healthcare laboratory: the coming shortage of qualified laboratory workers.

In the last 25 years, more than 600 schools and university programs for medical technology have closed. In 2012 we will need 138,000 laboratory scientists, but at best there will be 42,000 available. (source) Why? Low salaries for workers mean less interest in the profession. Worse still, the schools and programs face high expenses. Providing instruments and other devices necessary to properly train technologists is not cheap.

Here's where Labs are Vital comes in. At this event, Abbott announced a new $1 million dollar donation program - schools and programs can apply for free instruments, reagents, and service. AACC past president, Stephen Kahn, PhD and Bernie Bekken, President of ASCLS, were present to welcome this new effort.

It's good to see that Abbott recognizes a critical reality: While Abbott may be comfortably profitable, their future profits are in jeopardy if there aren't enough workers to run their instruments. Not only do the schools need to be supported, but the profession itself needs to be supported. Labs and lab workers need some better public relations - and they need to get out of the basement. In the increasingly cost-stressed healthcare system, the anonymous role of the laboratory worker means out of sight, out of compensation. Labs Are Vital hopes to raise the profile of the laboratory worker and make more of them.

Abbott noted that the Labs are Vital program would be non-branded and invited participation by other diagnostic companies. This part is key. For any real initiative to succeed, it can't simply be a marketing effort by a single company. It's an easy PR move for a company to make a donation. But if the initiative is strongly identified with just one company, there is less incentive for other companies to participate.

How will the other companies react? Will they join the effort? Will they create their own? We'll see.

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Tools, Technologies and Training for Healthcare Laboratories

Originally posted April 21st, 2006

To: Those who will influence the future quality of laboratory testingCLSI Area Committee on Evaluation ProtocolsCLSI Subcommittee on Establishment of Manufacturer’s QC RecommendationsCLSI Subcommitee on Laboratory Quality Control Procedures

To:
Those who will influence the future quality of laboratory testing
CLSI Area Committee on Evaluation Protocols
CLSI Subcommittee on Establishment of Manufacturer’s QC Recommendations
CLSI Subcommitee on Laboratory Quality Control Procedures