American Association for Clinical Chemistry
Improving healthcare through laboratory medicine
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6/28/2010

CHECK OUT THOSE PLENARIES!
If you haven’t yet registered to attend this year’s AACC Annual Meeting, now’s a great time to get that registration in. The meeting is going to be full of outstanding speakers on a multitude of timely topics related to every aspect of clinical laboratory medicine.  A good example of the variety of topics that will available at the meeting can be found in the Plenary Sessions.  The Plenary Sessions are presented by nationally recognized leaders from the clinical practice, research, business or policy arenas.  These men and women speak on their perspectives of the most current happenings in our field.
 
The Plenary Sessions for this year’s AM are a stellar group of speakers:
 
The speaker for the Opening Plenary is Dr. John Trojanowski, a leader in the development and characterization of biomarkers of neurological disease, especially the role of abnormal protein aggregates (misfolded proteins) in neurodegenerative disorders .    Dr. Trojanowski is the Co-Director of the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research Director, Institute on Aging, the Director of the Alzheimer's Disease Core Center, and the William Maul Measey-Truman G. Schnabel, Jr. MD Professor of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology at University of Pennsylvania.   Dr. Trojanowski is this year’s recipient of the Wallace H. Coulter Lectureship Award, and he will speak about novel biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease at the Sunday evening Opening session in his talk entitled “The Impact of Biomarkers on the Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease”. 
 
Dr. Gail Wilensky will present the Monday morning Plenary Session.  Dr Wilensky is an economist and a senior fellow at project HOPE, an international health foundation.   Among many other duties, she has served as Administrator of HCFA (now CMS), as a commissioner on the World Health Organization’s Commission on the Social Determinants of Health and has co-chaired the Dept. of Defense Task Force on the Future of Military Health Care.  Dr. Wilensky will discuss possible implications of changes to the healthcare system and provide insights into future trends in healthcare and their impact on laboratory medicine in her talk entitled “The Changing and Challenging Healthcare Landscape”.
 
Dr. James Thomson is the speaker for the Tuesday morning Plenary Session.  Dr. Thomson is a developmental biologist who is best known for deriving the first human embryonic stem cell line.  He serves as director of regenerative biology at the Morgridge Institute for Research in Madison, Wisconsin, and is a professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.  As an expert on stem cells, Dr Thomson will discuss the rapidly emerging field of stem cell utilization  in human health in his talk untitled “Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Derived from Episomal Vectors”.
 
Wednesday morning’s Plenary Session will be presented by Dr. Paul Ridker.  Dr. Ridker is the Eugene Braunwald Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and directs the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention, a translational research unit at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston which focuses on the molecular and genetic epidemiology of cardiovascular diseases.  A renowned cardiologist and researcher, Dr Ridker will discuss the utilization of hsCRP to predict future cardiovascular events in his talk entitled “Inflammation, hsCRP, and Cardiovascular Prevention: A Paradigm Shift”.
 
The Plenary Session on Thursday morning will be presented by Dr. Leroy Hood.  Dr. Hood is recognized as one of the world's leading scientists in the molecular biotechnology and genomics field.   He holds numerous patents and awards for his scientific breakthroughs and in 2007 he was elected to the Inventors Hall of Fame (for the automated DNA sequencer).  In 2000, he co-founded the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, Washington to pioneer systems approaches to biology and medicine.  Dr. Hood will discuss powerful new technologies that allow a new “systems approach” to medicine which involves the patient in their own, preventative health care.  Dr Hood’s talk is entitled “Systems Medicine, Transforming technologies and the Emergence of P4 Medicine: Predictive, Personalized, Preventive and Participatory”.
 
These five Plenary talks will provide an amazing look at cutting edge aspects of healthcare and laboratory medicine from five renowned experts in their respective fields.  So if you haven’t yet registered, now would be the time.  You won’t want to miss a single session.
Posted at 9:58 AM by Robert Mull | Category: June | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

6/21/2010

DEVELOPED IN COOPERATION WITH ……
I’m curious.  When you’re browsing the AM registration brochure in search of the topics with the most interest for you, and planning your activities for the meeting week, do you notice that phrase “Developed in cooperation with . . .”?   The week of the meeting, do you find it helpful in deciding on sessions to attend when going through the AM Program?
 
The “Developed in cooperation with ….” phrase is found in both the Program Guide and Registration Brochure immediately under the Session Title, Moderator and CE credit information.  It is a way for various members and member Developed in cooperation with...groups within the AACC to clearly indicate how the AACC is working with other societies and within itself to further AACC’s strategic educational and scientific aims.  In the past, sessions have been developed in collaboration with such associations as College of American Pathologists (CAP), the American Diabetes Association (ADA), American Society for Microbiology (ASM), Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI), the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC), the National Kidney Disease Education Program and the Personalized Medicine Advisory Group, to name a few.  Along with these outside Associations, sessions are also developed within specific Divisions or Local Sections, and knowing that information up front can be incredibly helpful in deciding whether to attend the session. 
The “Developed in cooperation…” phrase has other utilities as well.  Besides reflecting programs developed with outside associations, it is a great way to showcase programs that the Divisions or Local Sections are working on within their own groups.   This way the Divisions and Local Sections can not only indicate how actively involved they are with the development of AM submissions, they can also alert their respective group members about sessions of particular interest to them.  “Developed in cooperation…” on a session is a way to flag its content and its associations.
 
As useful as this information can be, sometimes getting it into the Program is problematic.  It can be a difficult demographic to capture successfully.  Over the years, there have been a number of ways this has been handled.    In the past, if a person making a submission had a topic of that might be of interest to a particular Division or Section or an outside Association, the author could simply state that the submission was developed in cooperation with the group.  This method was not very well received because sometimes the particular group involved did not know anything about the submission, and was surprised to discover that they had been involved with a program development. 
 
In order to correct that, the rules were changed a few years ago so that if you claim your submission is developed in cooperation with a group, you must name the contact in that group that you dealt with and supply his or her contact information.  This method ensures that the Group knows about ‘developed in cooperation” submissions, but the method isn’t fool proof.   One of the biggest problems it faces is timing.   Like all of us, people making submissions have a tendency to make them right at the deadline.  If you’ve done that and then cannot get hold of your contact person, you cannot add that ‘developed in cooperation” on your submission.  Also, sometimes people would like to work cooperatively with a group, but are unaware of whom to contact for information and for that all important permission.  
 
There has been some discussion about changing this process again, to possibly allow the “Developed in..” phrase to be added to sessions AFTER the submission deadline.  To date, no really good suggestion has yet been proposed for doing this, as many of the proposed suggestions involve activities that will make already tight timelines even worse for the Meetings Staff and the AMOC.  So currently there isn’t a magic bullet for ensuring that all sessions get their appropriate association tagged with a “developed in cooperation”.    I am interested in how important the AACC members consider this tag.   I wonder if most people find it useful?  Does the average attendee notice it and plan accordingly?   Does anyone think the process should be changed and improved?  I’d love to hear suggestions or comments from the membership, as well as from various groups.  So if you’ve never commented on a blog before, here’s your chance!
Posted at 12:15 PM by Robert Mull | Category: June | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

6/9/2010

VAN SLYKE FOUNDATION SILENT AUCTION
The Van Slyke Foundation (VSF) is the AACC’s philanthropic arm.   The Society is named after Dr. Donald Dexter Van Slyke, one of the fathers of clinical chemistry.  He began his career with a PhD in organic chemistry and played a vital role in making chemistry an integral part of medicine.  His more than 250 papers on a multitude of analytes and the clinical investigation of disease states had a profound effect on the approach to treatment of many of them.   Dr. Van Slyke was nicknamed “The Chief” for his leadership role in training many, many clinical scientists. 

The VSF is dedicated to supporting and encouraging clinical laboratory scientists from emerging areas and science students.  Originating in 1988, the then-Van Slyke Society was created by the AACC Board of Directors to support research and education in clinical laboratory medicine.  The VSF is governed by a Board of Trustees and funded by donation s from individuals and corporations that share its vision and passion for the field of clinical laboratory medicine.   VSF donations support student and international travel grants to the AACC Annual Meeting, , numerous student awards,, science fair prizes scholarships for post-doctoral studies, research grants, AACC memberships and other awards for deserving clinical scientists around the world.  Click here to read more about the Foundations grants and awards.
 
The Foundation will hold its fourth Silent Auction and Reception at the 2010 AM.  This year’s event is on Wednesday evening, July 28th,  5:30 pm to 7:30 pm at the elegant Tiffany Terrace, Sheraton Hotel in Anaheim.  Tickets are $75.00 each and all proceeds from ticket sales and the auction bids go to VSF grants and awards.  Silent Auction tickets may be purchased here.

The Foundation and its grantees are grateful to all the contributors who support the mission to improve clinical laboratory medicine worldwide.

For just $5, you can also buy a raffle ticket to win a Kindle 2, but only at the Annual Meeting.  It’s an easy and inexpensive way to help the Foundation support deserving young investigators and those working in laboratories in emerging countries around the globe.  Raffle tickets are for sale at the AM.  Your Foundation contribution is an investment in the future of clinical laboratory medicine.  Click here to donate today.  Thank you for your support!
Posted at 5:04 PM by Robert Mull | Category: June | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

6/4/2010

LOCAL SECTION ACTIVITIES AT THE AM

Along with the Division structure, the AACC is divided up into 15 Local Sections.  If you are a member of the AACC in the US, you are a member of a Local Section.   Local Sections are geographical entities for the most part and provide educational and networking opportunities on a local level.  Although I will say, “local” is being interpreted fairly loosely when you consider the area covered by the Rocky Mountain Section (Canada to Mexico down through the Rockies) or the Texas Section or the Midwest Section.  And of course only the AACC would consider Hawaii as ‘local’ to the Northern California Section and Alaska as ‘local’ to the Northwest Section. 

I thought about doing this post as a quiz, but decided people might not be in the mood to take a quiz, so here are a few fun facts about the Local Sections: 
  1. One state is part of four Local Sections:  Ohio is part of Ohio Valley, Northeast Ohio, Pittsburgh and  Michigan Local Sections.
  2. One state is divided among three Local Sections:  California is divided among the Northern California, Southern California and San Diego Local Sections.
  3. Two cities have their own Local Sections:  San Diego and New York Metro.
  4. Four Local Sections are named for cities, but include other states: Chicago (Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana), Philadelphia (Pennsylvania, Delaware), Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia) and Capitol  (DC, Maryland, Virginia)
  5. New York Metro is probably the smallest Local Section geographically, while the largest might be in some dispute between the Rocky Mountain Section, the Midwest Section, the Texas Section and Northwest Section, which includes Alaska.
  6. The Southeast Section includes portions of the most states (8!) (Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee), followed closely by the Midwest Section with 7 states (Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska).
  7. Florida, New Jersey and Upstate New York are Local Sections named after states that only contain that state.
  8. Three Local Sections are named for states but contain more than one state:  Texas (Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana), Michigan (Michigan, Indiana, Ohio) and North Carolina (North Carolina, Virginia).

A map of the Local Sections can be found on the AACC website.

The Local sections are not as active at the AM as the Divisions tend to be, probably because many of them are truly “local” and can gather members together more easily than Divisions can.   There are a number of Local Section functions at the AM however, and they are listed below:

Northeast Local Section Reception:  Sunday, July 25th, 4:00 pm

Local Section Chairs and Chairs Elect Breakfast: Tuesday, July 27th, 7:00 am

Midwest Section Annual Meeting:  Tuesday, July 27th, 12:00 pm

Texas, Southeast and North Carolina Sections Joint Breakfast:  Wednesday, July 28th, 7:00 am

Rocky Mountain Section Members Lunch:  Wednesday, July 28th, 12:00 pm

If you fall into any of these Local Sections, be sure and come by and join the fun. And if you’re not involved in activities at your own Local Section, I strongly encourage you to contact your Section officers and begin volunteering.   Local Sections are an ideal way to begin becoming engaged with the AACC.

Posted at 5:30 PM by Robert Mull | Category: June | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

Patti Jones, Annual Meeting Organizing Committee Member

Patti Jones
Annual Meeting Organizing Committee Member