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REGISTER TODAY! ACTIVATE THE FUTURE AACC’s Annual Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo is the perfect blend of industry-leading content and the latest technology trends. And with world-class speakers, groundbreaking education, and cutting-edge exhibits, it’s no surprise this is where the forward-facing will meet, share, learn, debate, discuss and discover. Register today! www.aacc.org/2015am 2015 AACC ANNUAL MEETING & CLINICAL LAB EXPO JULY 26-30, 2015 GEORGIA WORLD CONGRESS CENTER ATLANTA, GA • USA www.aacc.org/2015am www.healthcare-in-europe.com 19LABORATORY omation nging specimens processed and in their storage units, and the CentraLink system validating the data. New tests reduce costs ‘We received the first new immu- noassay funding in five years by demonstrating how to generate 38 antibiotic-free days per month in the ICU by introducing procalci- tonin testing at the starting or stop- ping of antibiotics,’ Bartlett adds. Although no big drug saving, cut- ting one night’s ICU stay saves around £1,200. The CentraLink system’s ability to take data from systems on the around-time – also in situations where not all the instruments work properly. Being the clinical chemist on duty in a big laboratory will soon con- front me with topics concerning analytical techniques and their inter- ferences, telephone calls from physi- cians asking for an interpretation of a result, coming from, for example, special endocrinology, therapeutic drug monitoring or protein analysis, and often usually at least one of the great many internal quality control results will be out of the accepted range. He, or she, will switch very rapidly between analytical details of the different assays, pathophysi- ological processes and management of challenging situations needing organisational experience. This amplitude of topics prevents the clinical chemist job from becom- ing tedious and monotonous and makes it a fasci- nating task, every day. multidisciplinary Aptio Automation track enables secondary, cascade testing. Tayside’s clinical and lab teams are collaborating to develop simple user interfaces – powered by complex algorithms – to enable liver disease investigation. Far from automation reducing staff, Bartlett points, out, knowledge and skills are re-directed to augment care. Expert guidance Bartlett says the project’s success is down to Siemens’ expertise and consultative approach. ‘We relied on them to evaluate workloads rec- ommend the optimal mix of instru- ments to support peak loads. They not only saw what happens in this lab, they have a lot of experience in labs elsewhere and understand the environment.’ Members of the Siemens team chaired meetings with biologists and biochemists and its consultants helped people formerly working in silos to understand how their actions affected downstream work- flows for others, and vice versa. It also gave support in the transi- tion period to the new track, said McKay: ‘On occasion, they even helped with sample processing!’ Two years later the consultants still support Tayside with services and strategic consulting for process engineering. Bill Bartlett, NHS Tayside Joint Clinical Director of Diagnostics, U.K. The CentraLin Data Management System is a proven data management solution that empowers labs to deliver timely, accurate results efficiently. ETH Zürich promoted Katharina Rentsch Dr. sc. nat to professor in 2003. She currently heads the department of clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine at University Hospital Basel, Switzerland. From 2009 Prof. Rentsch was also President of the Swiss Society for Clinical Chemistry and Molecular Diagnostics (SSCC).

EH 2_2015

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