Washington, DC, March 31, 2010 – The American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) announces a webinar Identifying and Investigating Test Interferences to be held April 14, 2010 at 2:00 pm EDT. The webinar will last 90 minutes.
If they go undetected and unresolved, laboratory test interferences can lead to inaccurate results that can affect the quality of patient care. Many of today’s highly automated laboratory instruments have built-in mechanisms that help laboratories identify sample integrity issues, flag test results that are outside specified reference ranges, and identify outliers that require further investigation. These tools help ensure accurate and precise testing, but may not always pick up problems caused by test interferences. If an interference is the cause of a discrepant result or series of discrepancies, it often takes good, old-fashioned human detective work to solve the problem. Is the interference antibody-based or caused by other sources, such as drugs? Or is the culprit an error committed during the pre-analytical phase of testing?
During this interactive webinar, three experts in laboratory quality, immunoassay and toxicology will outline strategies for identifying, investigating and resolving test discrepancies:
Amitava Dasgupta, PhD, DABCC, FACB, Director of Clinical Chemistry, Toxicology and Point-of-Care Services at Memorial-Hermann Hospital, Texas Medical Center and Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Texas Medical School, Houston, TX
Steven Kazmierczak, PhD, DABCC, FACB, Director, Clinical Chemistry and Toxicology, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR
Larry J. Kricka, PhD, Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Director, General Chemistry and the Critical Care Laboratory, at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
The webinar will be moderated by Jack Zakowski, PhD, FACB, Director, Scientific Affairs and Professional Relations at Beckman Coulter, Inc., Brea, CA
Managing laboratory test interferences is a necessary and important part of the day-to-day workings of the clinical laboratory and of ensuring the quality of patient care. AACC invites journalists reporting on these issues to attend the webinar at no cost by completing and returning a Press Registration Form. For more information about the webinar or AACC, please contact Peter Patterson on either of the above phone numbers.