Purpose:

The Canadian Laboratory Initiative on Pediatric Reference Intervals (CALIPER) is a nation-wide health initiative to improve the diagnosis and monitoring of children and adolescents with medical concerns. Our main objective is to establish a comprehensive database of evidence-based age- and sex-specific reference intervals for routine and emerging clinical laboratory tests in children and adolescents.

CALIPER is designed to fill the gaps that currently exist in accurately interpreting blood test results with the ultimate goal of improving pediatric diagnostic care.

General Activities:

CALIPER continues to succeed and have global impact; as of February 2023, clinical laboratories in 143 countries (with over 7600 registered users) are accessing the database and using CALIPER reference interval information in their routine laboratory/clinical practice including most children hospitals in Canada and USA. Key progress includes:

• Recruited +12,800 healthy childrenand adolescents from schools and other community centres.
• Established paediatric reference intervals for +200 laboratory biomarkers of health and disease on several analytical platforms.
• Published +80 peer-reviewed papers in high-impact journals to share methods and data worldwide.
• Created an online database and mobile application for free access to CALIPER reference intervals based on peer-reviewed data from thousands of healthy children and teens from birth to 18 years.

CALIPER continues to initiate new studies and collaborate with clinical chemists globally to address evidence gaps in pediatric diagnostics for special markers and new laboratory instruments. The CALIPER online database is routinely updated with novel peer-reviewed data. It is free for use by all healthcare professionals, laboratory professionals, as well as families and children.

Chair:

Dr. Khosrow Adeli

Term of Office: 2010 – present

Members:

Mary Kathryn Bohn
Victoria Higgins
Benjamin Jung
Joseph Macri
Edward Randell
Lusia Sepiashvili
Vijay Grey
Vilte Barakauskas
Edgard Delvin
Christopher McCudden
Fabienne Parente
Plus many members of the pediatric focus group from across Canada

For more information about the CALIPER Project:

CALIPER website

For access to the CALIPER online database:

CALIPER database

For a comprehensive list of peer-reviewed CALIPER publications:

CALIPER publications