REGISTRATION
| Category1 | Registration Type | Fee | |||
| Club Member | CSCC Members | $150.00 plus applicable taxes | |||
| Non-Members | $175.00 plus applicable taxes | ||||
| Single Roundtable | CSCC Members | $25.00 plus applicable taxes | |||
| Non-Members | $30.00 plus applicable taxes | ||||
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| All CSCC Education Roundtables will be held on Thursdays and will be one (1) hour in length. | |||||
| Eastern | Pacific | Mountain | Central | Atlantic | Newfoundland |
| ON, QC | BC | AB, SK* | MB, ON (West) | NB, NS, PE, Lab | NL |
| 11:30-12:30 | 08:30-09:30 | 09:30-10:30 | 10:30-11:30 | 12:30-13:30 | 13:00-14:00 |
| 14:00-15:00 | 11:00-12:00 | 12:00-13:00 | 13:00-1400 | 15:00-16:00 | 15:30-16:30 |
| * SK – During daylight savings time; otherwise one hour later | |||||
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.
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2022-2023 SCHEDULE
| #11. March 30, 2023 | Continuous Glucose Monitoring |
| Speaker: | Lyne Labrecque, Clinical Chemist, Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM) |
| Overview: | Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems are minimally invasive devices that measure interstitial glucose every 1-5 minutes, thus providing a more complete glycemic profile compared with standard glucose meter, without the need for a fingerstick. These devices are widely used in the outpatient setting for people with diabetes, but still for investigational use only for the inpatient population, despite constant demand from users and healthcare staff. This presentation summarizes the most recent literature and experiences on the use of CGM in health institutions, including hospitals, long-term care centers and at-home services. The role of the laboratory – POCT division in the supervision of this technology will also be discussed. |
| Objectives: | At the conclusion of this session, participants will be able to: 1) Describe Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) systems and provide examples of their use in health institutions. 2) Discuss on the role of the laboratory – POCT division, in the supervision of this technology. |
| #9. Feb. 16, 2023 | Are Mass Spectrometers Truth Machines? |
| Speaker: | Dr. Russ Grant, VP Research and Development, Labcorp |
| Overview: | This talk aims to either support or debunk the often used term “Mass spectrometry is accurate, fast and specific” through my personal experience over the last 30 years. This lecture will highlight the achilles heel(s) of quantitative mass spectrometry, together with practically applicable techniques to mitigate and correct them. While it is true that Mass Spectrometry is a powerful technology, one must remember the words of Ben Parker to Spiderman “With great power comes great responsibility” |
| Objectives: | At the end of this session, participants will be able to: 1) Understand why matrix effects occur (preparatively and through ionization) and know what techniques to use to diagnose and recommendations on how to solve for them. 2) How to apply multiple transition ratio monitoring for SRM/MRM to add confidence in analytical selectivity prior to accepting results 3) How to improve throughput – without sacrificing selectivity 4) The critical importance of metrology in assay development/design 5) How to quantify a protein using bottom-up proteomic techniques – “correctly” |
| #8. Feb. 2, 2023 | Diagnostic performance of neural antibody testing for autoimmune encephalitis |
| Speaker: | Adrian Budhram, Assistant Professor of Neurology, Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Western University |
| Overview: | Neural antibodies serve as helpful diagnostic biomarkers of autoimmune encephalitis, a potentially devastating yet treatable neurologic disease. As accessibility to neural antibody testing has increased, so too have evaluations of test diagnostic performance. We herein discuss the clinical sensitivity, specificity and predictive value of neural antibody testing for autoimmune encephalitis, with the aim of improving test implementation and interpretation in clinical practice. |
| Objectives: | At the conclusion of this session, participants will be able to: 1) Describe clinical sensitivity, specificity and predictive value of diagnostic testing 2) Discuss key considerations of these diagnostic test measures pertaining to neural antibody testing for autoimmune encephalitis 3) Highlight ways to optimize the diagnostic performance of neural antibody testing for autoimmune encephalitis in clinical practice |
| #7 Jan. 19, 2023 | Introduction to Machine Learning in the Clinical Laboratory |
| Speaker: | Natalie Landry, Clinical Biochemistry Fellow, University of Manitoba |
| Overview: | Machine Learning is a type of Artifical Intelligence (AI) which enables computer programs to learn and infer from data inputs without continuous human programming. This powerful tool can be used to predict, classify, and estimate outcomes from large datasets which would otherwise be too unwieldy to analyze. As demand for laboratory services continues to increase, and the data generated follows suit, the potential for Machine Learning in the clinical laboratory is certainly appealing. This presentation will serve as a broad review of the types of Machine Learning algorithms and their potential application to improve clinical, analytical, and operational processes in the laboratory. |
| Objectives: | At the end of this session, participants will be able to: 1) define and identify sources of “Big Data” 2) compare and contrast the 4 main categories of Machine Learning algorithms 3) recognize the types of problems in the clinical laboratory that can be addressed using Machine Learning. |
| #6 Dec. 15, 2022 | Clinical Chemistry Challenges in Vulnerable Populations |
| Speaker: | Martha E. Lyon, Laboratory Director, Clinical Biochemistry, Kenora Rainy River Regional Laboratory Program |
| Overview: | Several challenges have been identified with the provision of clinical chemistry services for vulnerable patient populations. In 2018, the Canadian Medical Association Journal added vulnerable populations as an area to champion in this journal. The term “vulnerable”, while not well defined in health care, has been used to justify the allocation of additional resources but it can also lead to the negative consequence of stigmatization. Neonatal/pediatric as well as LGBTQ+ populations have been identified as vulnerable populations in health care. In this seminar, several of the challenges in delivering clinical chemistry services for these patient populations will be discussed. |
| Objectives: | At the end of this session, participants will be able to: 1) describe the concept of vulnerable populations in healthcare 2) recognize the impact of choice of language when describing vulnerable populations 3) discuss challenges affecting delivery of clinical chemistry service for pediatric/neonatal and transgender patients. |
| #5. Nov. 17, 2022 | The Impact of Toxic Chemicals: No Safe Levels? |
| Speaker: | Bruce Lanphear, MD, MPH, Professor, Simon Fraser University |
| Overview: | For extensively-studied toxic chemicals – like lead, air pollution, and benzene – scientists have found that the risk of death, disease or disability rises sharply, beginning at the lowest measurable concentrations. These findings, which conflict with how agencies regulate chemicals, indicate that the contribution of toxic chemicals to chronic disease is grossly underestimated. If no threshold exists for widely disseminated toxic chemicals, we will need to achieve near-zero levels to protect people and laboratories will need to measure concentrations of toxic chemicals in blood and other body fluids in parts per billion or lower. |
| Objectives: | At the end of this session, participants will be able to: 1) Be familiar with three or more chemicals that are toxic at low levels of exposure 2) Appreciate the growing importance of laboratory technology to measure chemicals in blood and other body fluids in the parts per billion. |
| #4. Nov. 3, 2022 | Using Labs Wisely: Next steps and new directions |
| Speaker: | Dr. Janet Simons, Medical Biochemist, Providence Health Care, BC |
| Oveerview: | An overview of the national Using Labs Wisely initiative, of which many CSCC members are already participants. Followed by a discussion of the next steps that labs may take if they are already engaged in resource utilization initiatives, including new lab test targets and approaches. |
| Objectives | At the end of this session, participants will be able to: 1) Discuss common barriers to lab-lead utilization initiatives 2) Identify potential new targets for quality improvement |
| #3. Oct. 20, 2022 | New Solutions to Old Problems: A practical approach to identify sample with intravenous contamination in the clinical laboratory |
| Speaker: | Albert Tsui, Clinical Biochemist, Alberta Precision Laboratories |
| Overview: | Contamination with intravenous (IV) fluids is a common cause of specimen rejection in hospital labs. The impact of missed contaminated samples can lead to false elevation or reduction of laboratory results, leading to misdiagnosis and mismanagement of patient care. Identification of contaminated samples can be challenging and usually rely on common sense and experience. Internal laboratory measures such as failed delta checks and instrument errors may not be sensitive and specific enough. This presentation will highlight the current gaps to identify contaminated samples and describe an approach to identify these samples. |
| Objectives: | At the conclusion of this session, participants will be able to: 1) Outline various approaches in the literature to identify specimens with fluid contamination 2) Describe the considerations to develop, verify, implement and optimize algorithm to identify fluid contamination |
| #2, Oct. 6, 2022 | A Debate: The Pros and Cons of Direct-to-Consumer Testing |
| Speakers: | Dana Bailey, Clinical Chemist, Dynacare Kristin Hauff, Clinical Biochemist, Interior Health |
| During this presentation, we will debate the pros (Dana Bailey) and cons (Kristin Hauff) of direct-to-consumer (DTC) testing. Through the debate, we will highlight the current landscape and future projections of DTC testing, the advantages and limitations of DTC testing, and the role the laboratory may play in supporting or limiting DTC testing. In total, we will strive to answer the question whether DTC testing represents a tidal shift within the healthcare industry, or a passing trend. | |
| At the conclusion of this session, participants will be able to: 1) Describe the current landscape and future projections of direct to consumer testing in North America 2) Outline the benefits of direct to consumer testing 3) Outline the concerns with direct to consumer testing, and how to mitigate potential risks. |
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| #1. Sept. 22, 2022 | Reference Interval Harmonization in Canada |
| Speaker: | Mary Kathryn Bohn, PhD Candidate, The Hospital for Sick Children/University of Toronto |
| Overview: | Harmonization in laboratory medicine from specimen collection to result reporting is critical to ensure consistent and accurate clinical decision-making. There is currently unnecessary variation in reference intervals (RIs) reported to patient charts in laboratories across Canada for assays with established analytical traceability. This webinar will discuss the big data analytics approach developed by the Canadian Society of Clinical Chemists (CSCC) Working Group on Reference Interval Harmonization (hRI-WG) to derive common reference ranges across populations and testing platforms followed by an interactive discussion on implementation. |
| Objectives: | At the end of this session, participants will be able to: • Outline the major gaps in reference intervals and the critical need for harmonization across clinical laboratories. • Describe the major advances made by the CSCC Working Group on Reference Interval Harmonization. • Discuss the development and verification of common reference intervals and their implementation across Canada. |