2024-2025 Education Roundtable Series

Group Photo Of Professional Colleagues Working Together In Clinical Analysis Laboratory
Clinical Chemist Working
Clinical Chemist Group
Clinical Chemist in Lab
Clinical Chemist in Lab
Clinical Chemist Group
Clinical Chemist Working on Computer
Clinical Chemist in Lab

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1Save today! Club members are entitled to join any or all of the Roundtables. Register once only and automatically receive an invitation for each Roundtable and access to the slides and recordings of past roundtables for the current year.

  • Registration is by pre-payment only using the online registration form.
  • Each registration is restricted to one (1) phone line; you may have as many participants using that line as you wish.  You are welcome to sign up more than one (1) phone line but each line must be a separate registration and payment.
  • Participants will be sent a link to the zoom session.

2024/2025 Roundtable Series Dates:

2024

Date Time (Eastern) Presenter(s) Topic
1 September 19th 14:00-15:00 Samantha Logan Implementation of an intrasite quality assurance program in a high-volume clinical laboratory
2 October 3rd 14:00-15:00 Qian (Katie) Sun Beyond Intended Use: designing validation protocols for accurate PSA testing for patients under 50
3 October 17th 11:30-12:30 Katharine Hayden / Rob Shorten The laboratory’s role in achieving Net Zero healthcare
4 October 31st 11:30-12:30 Heather Paul Transcutaneous BilirubinTBC
5 November 14th 11:30-12:30 He Sarina Yang AI Chatbots in Laboratory Medicine: From Foundations to Clinical Applications and Emerging Trends
6 November 28th 14:00-15:00 Kika Veljkovic / Matthew Nichols CKD-EPI eGFR and KFRE Implementation in community labs M-protein detection via mass spectrometry
7 December 12th 11:30-12:30 Anna Fuezery Implementing dual HIV/syphilis POCT at STI clinics across Alberta

TBCtitle to be confirmed

2025

Date Time (Eastern) Presenter(s) Topic
8 January 23rd 11:30-12:30 Abdi Sokoro / Allan Garland Reducing Unnecessary Diagnostic Tests: Issues and Opportunities
9 February 6th 11:30-12:30
10 February 20th 11:30-12:30
11 March 6th 11:30-12:30
12 March 20th 14:00-15:00
13 April 3rd 11:30-12:30
14 April 17th 14:00-15:00
15 May 1st 11:30-12:30
16 May 15th 11:30-12:30
17 May 29th 14:00-15:00

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#1. September 19, 2024 Implementation of an intrasite quality assurance program in a high-volume clinical laboratory
Speaker: Dr. Samantha Logan, Alberta Precision Laboratories and the University of Calgary
Overview: This presentation will highlight the rationale, advantages, and challenges of implementing a quality assurance program examining the comparability of multiple chemistry autoanalyzers in a high-volume community laboratory in Calgary. An overview of accreditation requirements for assessing comparability between instruments will also be discussed.
Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, participants will be able to:

  1. Understand if your accreditation program requires periodic inter-instrument comparisons
  2. Explain the value of implementing a weekly intrasite quality assurance program for high-volume chemistry testing.
  3. Be aware of the challenges that accompany the implementation of an intrasite patient comparison program.
#2. October 3, 2024 Beyond Intended Use: designing validation protocols for accurate PSA testing for patients under 50
Speaker: Dr. Qian (Katie) Sun, Corewell Health William Beaumont University Hospital, Michigan

Dr. Sun is a board-certified Clinical Chemist at Corewell Health William Beaumont University Hospital in Michigan and Assistant Professor at Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine. She serves as the Technical Director of the Automated Chemistry and Urinalysis Laboratories. She has been highly productive in clinical service, scientific research, and in the professional community as evidenced by her publications and presentations nationally and internationally. Dr. Sun has published more than 30 book chapters and peer-reviewed articles in journals including Clinical Chemistry, Blood, and JAMA Cardiology. The many awards she has received include the Paul E. Strandjord Young Investigator Award from the Academy of Clinical Laboratory Physicians and Scientists and Outstanding Speaker Award from the American Association for Clinical Chemistry. Her research interests include endocrine and autoimmune biomarkers, as well as quality improvement in the clinical laboratory.

Overview: This session delves into the complexities of designing validation plan for detecting PSA (Prostate-specific antigen) in a patient population beyond intended use specified by manufacturers. Real world examples will be presented for analytical and clinical validation of PSA tests for patients under 50 years old, as well as for comparison of validation results from different institutions using various PSA methods. Professionals attending this session will be better equipped to implement testing methodologies beyond the intended use, ensuring that needs for diverse patient populations are met.
Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, participants will be able to:

  1. Appreciate the need to offer PSA tests to patients under 50 years of age.
  2. Design validation strategies for off-label use of PSA in specific patient populations.
#3. October 17, 2024 The Laboratory’s Role in Achieving Net Zero Healthcare
Speakers: Dr Rob Shorten, Consultant Clinical Scientist, Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, and Katharine Hayden, Consultant Clinical Scientist, Manchester Foundation Trust, both representing the Association for Laboratory Medicine (as a note we changed the name of our Association earlier in 2024 from the Association for Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine).

Dr Rob Shorten is a Consultant Clinical Scientist at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals. He has broad experience in clinical microbiology and is the departmental lead for research, and the pathology lead for clinical audit. He is an honorary senior lecturer at the University of Manchester, and his research interests have included tuberculosis, laboratory diagnostics, and viral haemorrhagic fevers. His current interests include diagnostic stewardship and environmental sustainability. He is also the current Chair of the Microbiology Professional Committee of the Association for Laboratory Medicine.

Kath Hayden is a Consultant Clinical Biochemist at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. Following training in South Manchester, she has held posts in hospital laboratories in Manchester and Liverpool for over 35 years, overseeing advances in analytical technologies, point of care testing and harmonisation of laboratories, and her research interests include endocrinology and renal medicine. She is an honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Manchester and her last role was as Clinical Head of Division for Laboratory Medicine at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, before taking up her current role as President of the Association for Laboratory Medicine, UK. Current interests include sustainability of laboratories and appropriate test utilization.

Overview: This lecture will outline the importance of the climate emergency and its consequences for the planet and health. It will detail the role that healthcare, and in particular diagnostic laboratories plays in contributing to the carbon footprint. Challenges, and opportunities of how laboratory services can contribute to making patient pathways more environmentally sustainable will be explored.
Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, participants will be able to:

  1. Understand how the climate crisis is also a health crisis.
  2. Understand how laboratories contribute to the climate crisis.
  3. Understand how laboratories can reduce their carbon footprints.
#5. November 14, 2024 AI Chatbots in Laboratory Medicine: From Foundations to Clinical Applications and Emerging Trends
Speakers: Dr. Sarina Yang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Medical Director of Clinical Chemistry and Toxicology Laboratory, and Co-Director of the ComACC accredited Clinical Chemistry Fellowship Program at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medicine. She is board certified in both Clinical Chemistry and Toxicological Chemistry by ABCC. She currently serves as the Chair of Artificial Intelligence Working Group in the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC), and is a member in the ADLM Academy Council, Education Core Committee, and Data Analytics Steering Committee. She serves as an Associate Editor of Clinical Chemistry Journal, and in the Editorial Board of Critical Reviews in Clinical Laboratory Sciences and Annals of Laboratory Medicine. Her clinical and research interests are artificial intelligence, machine learning, clinical mass spectrometry, and toxicology/TOM.
Overview: This lecture will provide learners with an overview of the history of Al chatbots in medicine, knowledge about the latest development of ChatGPT and other large language models, as well as opportunities and challenges of using chatbots in laboratory medicine field. I will discuss the cutting-edge research that assess the accuracy and reliability of chatbots in answering questions related to laboratory tests or interpretation of laboratory data. I will use ChatGPT demo to show the functions and inherent limitations of chatbots, including issues such as “hallucinations”, and further elucidate the root causes of these limitations.
Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, participants will be able to:

  1. Discuss the capabilities and potential applications of chatbots in the field of laboratory medicine.
  2. Describe research and studies that evaluate the accuracy and reliability of chatbots in response to laboratory medicine questions.
  3. Explain the root causes underlying chatbots’ limitation, such as misinformation, inconsistencies, and lack of human-like reasoning abilities.