ASCLS Washington DC Delegate Meeting (2008)

Washington DC - June Conrad

I attended a Present State President Session, whose goals were networking opportunities by sharing ideals, learn the best practions that a state society had benefited from by using a certain method. The important of a strong grassroots societies. There were 45 different Scientific sessions offered, including one and a half days of Governance meetings concerning the affairs and business of the national programs.

The Opening Keynote "Patient Safety in Clinical Laboratory" by Michael Astion, was a very informative presentation on the value of safety methods. One of the bigest session was the joint session with AACC, with a panel discussion with Don Lavanty as moderator. The discussion about the emergence of "Comparative Effectiveness" and its use in clinical decision making, what alternate QC methods can be employed by clinical labs to comply with CLIA'88. The 20 years study to idenify the environmental factors affecting children's health and an update on competitive bidding and what it means to the clinical laboratories. The item affecting children's health had been repealed.

Some of the Governance Meetings were the update on renewing and revitaliizing on line certification, unified with other groups. Voice Vision session the netprofit in 2007 was $141,168. The expenses was 45% for administration and 55% for member services. The membership was 10,640 in 2008 down from 10,875 in 2007. To help with a better annual meeting by decreasing the length and include Breakfast and Lunch. There were Issues update and information on Government Affairs, several Professional Issues. A note of interest was that Regional 7 was lst place on PAC giving and we will received a free breadfast at our meeting in Chicago in July. The meetin if July 21 to 25, 2009, in Chicago.