Consultant Technologist – Microbiology (Contract)

The Institute for Quality Management in Healthcare (IQMH) (an affiliate of Accreditation Canada) is a provider of world-class medical laboratory proficiency testing (PT) programs. IQMH is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to increasing medical laboratories' quality infrastructure through its proficiency testing programs. Our clients are composed of national and international players in the medical diagnostic testing sector. IQMH's Centre for Proficiency Testing provides PT programs for medical laboratories in the following disciplines: chemistry, hematology, endocrinology, immunology, transfusion medicine, pathology, cytopathology, genetics, microbiology, and virology disciplines.

IQMH is seeking a volunteer to sit on its Proficiency Testing Scientific Committee for Pathology effective January 1, 2021. Membership on committees consists of a three-year term of office, renewable once. Committees meet an average of four times a year for half-day or full-day meetings.

IQMH considers the following criteria for membership:

• Membership will reflect the Canadian laboratory community, including hospital and community-based representation.
• Members shall be laboratory professionals of stature who have a broad knowledge of laboratory operations, quality assurance practices, quality management systems and their chosen laboratory medicine discipline.

Have you been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic?

As frontline healthcare workers with increasing demands in the workplace, attention to mental health is as important now as ever before. Empowering yourself with the tools to maintain a healthy mindset can benefit overall social, emotional, and psychological wellbeing.

In 2021, the Immunology (IMGY) survey will assess CRP (C-reactive Protein), high sensitivity (hs-CRP), and wide-range (wr)CRP assays as a single analyte (CRP). Previously, the IMGY survey targeted low values of CRP, which were best analyzed by hs-CRP assays. Newer immunoassays can measure a broad analytical range of CRP concentrations, and the number of laboratories replacing hs-CRP assays with full range CRP assays continues to increase. In order to assess the full range of clinically-encountered CRP values, the IMGY survey will now offer a range of CRP concentrations (0.1–120.0 mg/L). Assessments will continue to be made by all-methods’ mean.

The purpose of this bulletin is to remind participants of the changes related to the packaging and shipment process for Coagulation survey material in 2021.

A copy of the Shipment Changes for 2021 Coagulation Surveys was included in the previous September 2020 survey.

In our continual effort to improve our services, the Morphology section of the IQMH Hematology Scientific Committee conducted a review of the Morphology analysis worksheet, and several improvement opportunities were identified.

The following changes have been made to the analysis worksheet to reflect information found in current guidelines and published literature and are also expected to better support the move forward with providing digital images for future surveys.

The IQMH Centre for Proficiency Testing Scientific Committees are composed of physicians, technologists and scientists who provide advice to IQMH regarding the fundamental design of Proficiency Testing surveys and ensure that challenges are clinically relevant, and that appropriate performance evaluation is developed and implemented each year.

As a participant in the Centre for Proficiency Testing, participants obtain exclusive access to PT Consensus Practice Recommendations and Reviews. These documents can be found in discipline-specific folders under General - Proficiency Testing, PT Guidelines and Recommendations in the IQMH Documents section in QView.™

IQMH Centre for Proficiency Testing will be participating in the 2020 AACC Annual Scientific & Clinical Lab Expo all virtual event (December 13–17).

PT disciplines such as Bacteriology, Mycology and Hematology-Morphology have indices of survey challenges/cases going back as far as 1975. These are updated regularly and can be found in QView™.

Order deadline to participate in the 2021 Proficiency Testing surveys is approaching!

Following the first IQMH proficiency testing (PT) survey for SARS-CoV-2, the IQMH Virology Scientific Committee published Committee Comments with recommendations for participants.