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Read the latest articles about CLSI and laboratory standards in the official CLSI Blog. Browse our most recent blog articles below.
Over a dozen types of infections from bacteria in the United States are now resistant to all or nearly all known drugs. These include Clostridium difficile, which causes severe diarrhea; methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), and a strain of gonorrhea. Public health experts warn that left unchecked, antibiotic-resistant infections will surpass cancer as one of the world’s biggest killers, claiming 10 million deaths annually by 2050.
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A message from CLSI President, Jack Zakowski, PhD, FACB, wishing CLSI members and volunteers a happy holiday season and welcoming incoming President Mr. Carl Mottram, RRT, RPFT, FAARC.
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Today, December 1, 2017, we acknowledge World AIDS Day. To complement the global World AIDS Day 2017 campaign which promotes the theme "Right to health,” the World Health Organization (WHO) will highlight the need for all 36.7 million people living with HIV and those who are vulnerable and affected by the epidemic, to reach the goal of universal health coverage. According to the WHO, Universal health coverage means that all people receive the health services they need without experiencing financial hardship, including access to the full range of HIV services. The World Health Organization is using the slogan “Everybody counts.”
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CLSI is offering several upcoming webinars for laboratory professionals on the topic of antibiotic susceptibility testing. Our webinars provide an efficient and cost-effective way to learn more about timely AST topics and updated CLSI documents.
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Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest public health threats in the world today. We celebrate World Antibiotic Awareness Week this week, November 13-19. The World Health Organization (WHO) is promoting its campaign with a webpage containing helpful fact sheets and videos about antimicrobial resistance, as well as fun interactive games and quizzes.
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According to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, scientists have established a method to detect antibiotic susceptibility for urinary tract infections (UTI) in less than 30 minutes. UTIs account for nearly 8 million primary care visits every year. Traditional testing methods for antimicrobial susceptibility testing can take up to several days, either lengthening the patient’s wait for treatment or resulting in the patient being prescribed inappropriate antibiotics while the health care provider is waiting for AST results.
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Although matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) technology has been in use in laboratories since its development by two German scientists in the late 1980s, it wasn’t given FDA clearance for diagnostic microbial identification in the medical lab until 2013.(1) The use of MALDI-TOF MS in the medical lab reduces the time between specimen collection and diagnosis.
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This year’s Lab Quality Confab will provide lab administrators, managers and quality team members with professional quality management training, as well as networking and professional development opportunities. The Lab Quality Confab will be held October 24-25 at the Sheraton Hotel in New Orleans. More than 50 quality management sessions on the topics of Lean, Six Sigma, process improvement, and quality management systems will be offered.
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According to the ABC News Report Make Newborn Screening Uniform, every baby born in the United States is tested for anywhere from two to as many as 35 genetic or metabolic diseases that are treatable with special diets or medication. This disparity exists because each state has different testing requirements in place. While some states test newborns for dozens of diseases, others are required to perform only a handful of screening tests. To close this gap, a new federal report calls for national standards in newborn screening of the 4 million babies born each year in the United States.
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According to the Dark Daily, “To offset the loss of revenue from the price cuts to Medicare Part B clinical laboratory tests, labs will need to aggressively—but wisely—slash costs to balance their budgets.” They predict that community labs will be at greatest risk of financial failure as a result of these cuts. Rural and modest sized community hospitals will also be in peril.
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