Already this has been a busy and productive year for AACC and its members worldwide, and more is planned throughout 2015.
As of the beginning of April, the association had hosted webinars on topics as diverse as avoiding unnecessary testing and the ins-and-outs of viral load testing presented by highly regarded faculty who offered vital practical insights based on their own experience and research.
Valuable discussions are taking place every day on AACC Artery, our members-only interactive online community. Members are sharing ideas, research, and best practices with other laboratory medicine professionals from across the globe. In addition, AACC Artery participants are able to: read threaded discussion forums; search past discussion archives quickly for answers to previously asked questions; and access or post resources in file libraries.
AACC this year also has been an active voice on behalf of the clinical laboratory field, sending formal comments to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on FDA’s proposal for oversight of laboratory developed tests (LDT) and on the agency’s proposed regulation of next-generation sequencing tests. In January, Dr. Catherine Hammett-Stabler, a member of the government relations committee and a past AACC president, also represented AACC at FDA’s workshop on its proposed framework for regulating LDTS.
In a few days our virtual conference, Practical Solutions for Patient Centered POCT, will be taking place. Planned under the expert guidance of Dr. Roger L. Bertholf, this innovative online meeting will cover the gamut of point-of-care testing from regulations and compliance to pain management and critical care applications. Registrants will be able to participate in live question-and-answer sessions, online discussions, poster sessions and more from wherever they have online streaming capabilities.
Later this month our conference, Professional Practice in Clinical Chemistry: Supporting Patient Care from Cradle to Grave, will take place in Philadelphia. This highly rated program, which conveys an essential body of knowledge for clinical laboratorians, will feature a stellar panel of experts reviewing diagnostic testing throughout all stages of life and all centers of care. We are pleased to offer live-streaming of this event for those who can’t join us in person.
Still to come in 2015 are AACC’s Annual Meeting and Clinical Lab Expo in Atlanta, which draws 18,000 laboratory medicine professionals from across the globe and features more than 400 educational opportunities, and AACC’s 5th Annual Mass Spectrometry and Separation Sciences for Laboratory Medicine Conference in Chicago, with internationally renowned toxicologist Professor Hans Maurer as the keynote speaker. Two new virtual conferences also are on tap, our Lab Solutions Summit on September 16 and 17, and Cardiac Biomarkers: Changing Practices with New Testing Guidelines, in November.
Over the remainder of the year, more than 30 webinars are planned on topics ranging from reference ranges for testosterone levels and body fluid testing to current uses of and future possibilities for procalcitonin and new reporting requirements for Medicare’s Clinical Lab Fee Schedule. All of these opportunities reflect input from and participation by AACC’s own members, who are dedicated to providing the best patient care possible and advancing the field of laboratory medicine.
AACC members enjoy discounts on all our educational programs as well as members-only access to certain products. AACC members also have free access to our highly regarded peer-reviewed scientific journal, Clinical Chemistry, our content-rich Clinical Laboratory News magazine, as well as all issues of CLN Stat, which is published weekly.
As AACC moves forward in 2015 with essential content, best practices, and news, research, and public policy initiatives of importance to clinical laboratorians, join with us to develop your career, gain invaluable work-related knowledge and skills, and boost your readiness for the ever-changing healthcare field.
Membership in our dynamic, influential network of clinical laboratory professionals is just a few clicks away.