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.

On November 30, 2020, IQMH and Accreditation Canada moved forward with their planned integration by welcoming the IQMH Centre for Accreditation to the Accreditation Canada family. IQMH Centre for Accreditation has been rebranded as Accreditation Canada Diagnostics. The IQMH Centre for Education and Echocardiography (EQI) services are also part of this transfer, while the IQMH Centre for Proficiency Testing remains within IQMH as a controlled affiliate of Accreditation Canada