From Heather DeVries: In the scope of the whole world, how do labs search for new ways to improve their laboratory testing? Would it just be typing in the search bar, or are there ways to find the latest information randomly while looking for other things?
George replies, Heather, my surface-level response is to suggest we review results from external surveys like the CAP Survey and NASCOLA, plus standards and guidelines from the various international organizations like CLSI, ISTH, and ISLH. CAP Today publishes monthly spreadsheets comparing numerous available technologies.
Bob Gosselin adds:
Typically, we consult the journals that publish practice guidelines like ICSH standards, which are published in IJLH, or the lists published in STH. However, popularity, reads or downloads, and actual practices may change during implementation.
What I find when applying
ICSH lab guidance documents is that we try to address the lowest bar for adherence, especially in resource-limited countries or labs. Some guidelines are too cumbersome and not cost-effective. We nearly always have representation from these countries on
ICSH committees to keep us honest. In the standards I co-authored, we tend to indicate
minimum guidance to address resource-limited facilities, and
optimal for others where nickels and dimes are not counted.
But again, reading and implementing are different beasts. It would be nice to have a traveling road show, sponsored by all
IVD companies (pooled resources as sponsors), that would go to different parts of the world to see what is done and what can be done better given their financial, technical, or space limitations. There’s no real investment or return for the
IVD companies other than doing the right thing.
The industry is pretty good about forums and focus groups, but it is unclear whether they have these groups for those aforementioned countries and labs. Also, we need to invite the “mules” to the party and not just the department heads, chairs, and physicians as the mules actually know what’s going on in the trenches.
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