In July 2023, we changed our name from AACC (short for the American Association for Clinical Chemistry) to the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine (ADLM). The following page was written prior to this rebranding and contains mentions of the association’s old name. It may contain other out-of-date information as well.
2000 International Travel Fellowship
Daniel Mazziotta, MD, will receive the 22nd annual award, sponsored by BD Vacutainer Systems, Preanalytical Solutions of Becton Dickinson and Company. Dr. Mazziotta graduated from the National University of La Plata in 1974 and 1976, respectively. He has been Professor of Clinical Chemistry at the National University of La Plata since 1989.
After receiving training in several hospitals (general and pediatric), Dr. Mazziotta went to work at the Laboratory of Blood Gases and Electrolytes, Service for Lung and Heart Functional Exploration, Hospital San Juan de Dios of La Plata until 1980, providing laboratory service to the Intensive Care Unit. In 1978, he became interested in quality control, first in the Laboratory of Blood Gases and Electrolytes and later in the general clinical laboratory. At the end of 1980, he worked for the Ministry of Health of the Province of Buenos Aires, organizing the External Quality Control Program for public laboratories until 1985.
In 1986, Dr. Mazziotta moved to a professional institution and was nominated as Secretary of the Biochemical Federation of the Province of Buenos Aires, where he served until 1992. In 1987, he designed and directed the External Quality Assessment Scheme for clinical laboratories of the Biochemical Federation of Province of Buenos Aires, a position that he still holds after moving the EQAS to the Argentine Biochemical Foundation. He gained experience in preparing control materials to be used in EQAS for Clinical Chemistry and other laboratory specialties (Hematology, Urinalysis, and Instrumental).
During the 1990s, Dr. Mazziotta also became very active in teaching postgraduate courses in Quality Assurance in Argentina as well as many Latin-American countries: Bolivia, Uruguay, Paraguay, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Chile, Ecuador, and Guatemala. In the last two countries, he acted as Adviser and professor for the Pan American Health Organization in 1990 and 1992, respectively.
Dr. Mazziotta has been involved with the activities of the Latin-American Confederation of Clinical Biochemistry (COLABIOCLI), mainly since 1994 in the Continuous Quality Improvement Project for the Latin-American Region. He organized two Latin-American External Quality Surveys in 1992 and 1994, supported by the Biochemical Federation of Province of Buenos Aires. He has directed and given a special course for training organizers in EQAS Organization and Management every 2 years since 1996 with participants from Latin-American countries.
Since 1992, Dr. Mazziotta has been Corresponding Member, Member, and Chairman of the Committee on Analytical Quality, Education and Management Division of the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine. In 1997, he became Director of the Laboratory of Reference and Standardization in Clinical Biochemistry of the Argentine Biochemical Foundation, which was established through his initiative and is intended to be the basis of a Standardization Program in Clinical Laboratory in Argentina.
Since 1982, he has been a member of the Editorial Board of the Acta Bioquímica Clínica Latinoamericana, the official journal of the Latin-American Confederation of Clinical Biochemistry. Since 1987, he has been a member of the Permanent Scientific Commission, Argentine Section, of the same confederation. Since 1998, he has been a member of the Advisory Board of the Accreditation and Quality Assurance Journal. He has served as a member of scientific committees at the national and international level, and has acted as lecturer and chairman of numerous scientific meetings in the Latin-American region. He has written or presented more than 40 papers, posters, and presentations on quality control and has translated into Spanish documents and books related to the clinical laboratory.