Laboratory Leaders Research Articles

Editorial – The Microbiology Laboratorian in a Post-technology World: Indispensable or Obsolete?

Technology continues to have a major impact on the way that laboratory medicine is practiced. Automation, culture-independent pathogen detection methods, and rapid antimicrobial susceptibility testing are all influencing practice in the clinical microbiology laboratory and treatment of patients in the clinical practice arena. The mining of big data and its ability to guide clinical decisions through artificial intelligence and machine learning will continue to alter the value assigned to laboratory medicine. This editorial explores these changes and the challenges they pose to investigate the skill set that will be required from this and the next generation of laboratory leaders to successfully leverage the role of the clinical microbiology laboratory in a post-technology world.

The Role of the Pathologist in Population Health.

As part of its value-based care initiative, the College of American Pathologists has pursued research to better understand the role pathologists can have in population health. To answer the following questions: (1) what is the impact of population health and population health management on pathologists; (2) what roles are pathologists playing in population health management; (3) is population health something that pathologists in both larger and smaller settings can engage in; (4) are pathologists in a position to analyze laboratory data for population health, and, if so, what are the key information sources those pathologists must access; and (5) what steps can a pathologist take to become involved in population health? We conducted 10 semistructured interviews with pathologists and other medical laboratory leaders who have been active in population health. These interviews were supplemented with a review of the medical literature. Pathologists have demonstrated that laboratory data can provide unique value-added contributions to improving the health of populations. These contributions are not limited to pathologists in large, integrated settings. However, pathologists need to be proactive to contribute to health systems' population health efforts and may need to both enhance their own skills and the quality of their data to maximize the value of their contributions. Although not necessarily a definitive summary of the roles that pathologists are playing in population health, this article identifies some of the promising and innovative activities occurring among pathologists and laboratorians.

Perspectives on Expanded Scope of Practice in Cytotechnology.

In an effort to identify professional trends while offering meaningful resources to support decision making in the cytopathology community, the ASC/ASCP Workgroup: Focusing on Emerging Roles in Cytopathology conducted several data collection activities to assess the current state and professional trends of cytotechnologist (CT) practice. This information is intended to inform evidence- based development of education and workforce model(s). Research was conducted through mixed-method data collection processes. These included the ASCP Board of Certification (BOC) Practice Analysis, focus groups used to gather qualitative data regarding the perceptions and experiences of current stakeholders in cytopathology through face-to-face discussion, and a RAND Delphi study conducted to gather qualitative data regarding the perspectives and "pulse" of decision makers influencing cytopathology practice. Research findings reveal that practice patterns with new and emerging technologies are changing the workplace for many cytotechnologists. Cytotechnologists are increasingly performing tasks within the laboratory that extend beyond their formal training and are looking to professional societies to bridge the gap. Although many laboratory leaders embrace the use of cytotechnologists in expanded roles, regulatory restrictions and reimbursement rules are among acknowledged barriers to change. This study examines current marketplace needs and cytotechnologists' perceptions of their evolving workplace demands through qualitative data collection. This study provides a snapshot of the cur- rent climate of cytopathology and data that will help direct future education, personnel training needs, and staffing decisions.

Health tips for research groups.

Nature asked scientists to recommend one thing that institutional and laboratory leaders could do to make science more productive, rigorous and happy. Nature asked scientists to recommend one thing that institutional and laboratory leaders could do to make science more productive, rigorous and happy.

Four Corners States Biomonitoring Consortium: Lessons Learned During Implementation.

Building on a history of collaboration in environmental public health and biomonitoring activities, laboratory and environmental epidemiology leaders in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah created the Four Corners States Biomonitoring Consortium, which is now in its third year of activities. In this article, we briefly highlight some lessons learned during the implementation phases of the consortium, including the processes of collaborating to identify common environmental exposure concerns, prioritizing those concerns, identifying cohorts and communities with potential risks of excessive exposure, developing a model for conducting exposure investigations, and the challenges presented during the implementation phases and early fieldwork activities. Detailed information on these topics can be found at www.4csbc.org. The advantages of collaborating with, and leveraging the resources of, state Environmental Public Health Tracking Networks and Public Health Emergency Preparedness programs are discussed. Using one example from the early stages of this work, we also discuss the potential of biomonitoring as a vehicle for empowering the public to make informed choices to control their exposures and to influence public health decisions, support science-based environmental health policy and program development, and respond to emerging environmental exposure concerns.

ASCP's 40 Under Forty Top Five Recognizes Future Generation of Laboratory Leaders

Clockwise from top left: Hoi-Ying “Elsie” Yu, PhD, DABCC, FACB; Dana Bostic, MBA, MLS(ASCP)CM; Michelle Campbell, MLS(ASCP)CM; Christina Arnold, MD, FASCP; and Roseann Wu, MD, MPH, FASCP Five high-achieving pathologists, pathology residents, and medical laboratory professionals under age 40 have been named to the prestigious 2016 ASCP 40 Under Forty Top Five list. ASCP's 40 Under Forty program shines the spotlight on 40 highly accomplished pathologists, pathology residents, and laboratory professionals under age 40 who have made significant contributions to the profession and stand out as the future of laboratory leadership. More than 100 pathologists and laboratory professionals applied for the 2016 ASCP 40 Under Forty program. Individuals were asked to submit a resume and write a personal statement addressing how they see themselves as a leader or becoming a leader within the profession. The Top Five 40 Under Forty honorees were selected based on each honoree's blog entries and Twitter posts, members' online votes, and the Selection Committee's final evaluations. Each of the five will receive free registration to attend the ASCP 2016 Annual Meeting in Las Vegas, a $1,000 stipend toward airfare and lodging, and recognition at the …

Similarity analysis of the streamer zone of Blue jets

Multiple observations of Blue Jets (BJ) and Gigantic Blue Jets (GBJ) show that BJ and GBJ emits a fan of streamers similar to a laboratory leader. Moreover, in the exponential atmosphere those long streamers grow preferentially upward, producing a narrow cone confined by the aperture angle. It was also noticed that BJ are similar to the streamer zone of a leader (streamer corona) and the modeling studies based on the streamers fractal structure were conducted. Objective of this paper is to study the fractal dimension of the bunch of streamer channels emitted by BJ and GBJ, at different altitude and under the varying electric field. This similarity analysis has been done in three steps: first we described the dendritic structure of streamers in corona discharge applying the fractal theory. Then using this model and the data from existing laboratory experiments we obtained the fractal dimension of the branching streamer channels. Finally the model was validated by the observations of BJ available from the literature.

2-D model of the streamer zone of a leader

Formation of the streamer zone of a leader is an outstanding problem in the physics of electric discharges which is relevant to laboratory leaders, as well as to the leaders formed by lightning. Despite substantial progress in the theoretical understanding of this complicated phenomenon, significant puzzles, such as the low propagation velocity of a leader compared to the fast streamers, remain. The objective of this paper is to present 2-D plasma simulations of the formation and propagation of the streamer zone of a leader. In these simulations we will generate a group of streamers that propagate in a discharge gap while interacting with each other. It is shown that interaction between the streamers significantly reduces their propagation velocity. This explains why the leader, which consists of many streamers, is much slower than a single streamer formed in the same discharge gap. It is shown that the mean velocity suppression of the group of streamers is determined by the inter-streamer distance. The critical value of the packing factor of the streamers at which the interactions between them can be neglected, and thus the discussed process can be treated as caused by a single streamer, is obtained.

Laboratory Management: Quality in Laboratory Diagnosis

Written by Candis A. Kinkus, MBA; Series editor: Michael Laposata, MD, PhD 103 pages. New York, NY: Demos Medical Publishing. $40.00. ISBN: 978-1936287451 Laboratory Management: Quality in Laboratory Diagnosis is one of a series of useful books that covers key areas of management in today’s complex clinical laboratory. Laboratory Management is a concise review of certain responsibilities of laboratory leaders and how those leaders can best manage some of the more common problems that they face. For managers, supervisors, lead technologists, and aspiring laboratory leaders, this book serves as guide to …

Medication monitoring and drug testing ethics project.

In 2012, Duke University initiated a research project, funded by an unrestricted research grant from Millennium Laboratories, a drug testing company. The project focused on assessing the frequency and nature of questionable, unethical, and illegal business practices in the clinical drug testing industry and assessing the potential for establishing a business code of ethics. Laboratory leaders, clinicians, industry attorneys, ethicists, and consultants participated in the survey, were interviewed, and attended two face-to-face meetings to discuss a way forward. The study demonstrated broad acknowledgment of variations in the legal and regulatory environment, resulting in inconsistent enforcement of industry practices. Study participants expressed agreement that overtly illegal practices sometimes exist, particularly when laboratory representatives and clinicians discuss reimbursement, extent of testing, and potential business incentives with medical practitioners. Most respondents reported directly observing probable violations involving marketing materials, contracts, or, in the case of some individuals, directly soliciting people with offers of clinical supplies and other "freebies." While many study respondents were skeptical that voluntary standards alone would eliminate questionable business practices, most viewed ethics codes and credentialing as an important first step that could potentially mitigate uneven enforcement, while improving quality of care and facilitating preferred payment options for credentialed parties. Many were willing to participate in future discussions and industry-wide initiatives to improve the environment.

JPL Innovation Foundry

Space science missions are increasingly challenged today: in ambition, by increasingly sophisticated hypotheses tested; in development, by the increasing complexity of advanced technologies; in budgeting, by the decline of flagship-class mission opportunities; in management, by expectations for breakthrough science despite a risk-averse programmatic climate; and in planning, by increasing competition for scarce resources. How are the space-science missions of tomorrow being formulated? The paper describes the JPL Innovation Foundry, created in 2011, to respond to this evolving context. The Foundry integrates methods, tools, and experts that span the mission concept lifecycle. Grounded in JPL's heritage of missions, flight instruments, mission proposals, and concept innovation, the Foundry seeks to provide continuity of support and cost-effective, on-call access to the right domain experts at the right time, as science definition teams and Principal Investigators mature mission ideas from “cocktail napkin” to PDR. The Foundry blends JPL capabilities in proposal development and concurrent engineering, including Team X, with new approaches for open-ended concept exploration in earlier, cost-constrained phases, and with ongoing research and technology projects. It applies complexity and cost models, project-formulation lessons learned, and strategy analyses appropriate to each level of concept maturity. The Foundry is organizationally integrated with JPL formulation program offices; staffed by JPL's line organizations for engineering, science, and costing; and overseen by senior Laboratory leaders to assure experienced coordination and review. Incubation of each concept is tailored depending on its maturity and proposal history, and its highest-leverage modeling and analysis needs.

Values Levers

As information systems transform our world, computer scientists design affordances that influence the uses and impacts of these technological objects. This article describes how the practices of design affect the social values materialized in emerging technologies, and explores how design practices can encourage ethical reflection and action. The article presents an ethnography of a laboratory that engineered software for mobile phones to track users’ locations, habits, and behaviors. This technical work raised a number of ethical challenges, particularly around questions of data use and surveillance. The ethnography suggests that particular activities within laboratories can help engineers agree on social values as important to design. It characterizes these activities as values levers: practices that open new conversations about social values and encourage consensus around those values as design criteria. Laboratory leaders and advocates can enable and strengthen these levers to encourage ethical reflection and action as an explicit part of design practice.

Immunologic Studies in Humans.

Immunologic Studies in Humans.

Life at the Frontier

Life at the Frontier

Sharing with Python

Sharing with Python

HUPO Plasma Proteome Project 2007 Workshop Report

The HUPO Plasma Proteome Project (PPP) held its annual workshop at the 6th HUPO World Congress in Seoul, Korea, October 7, 2007. The agenda was organized around the aims of the next phase of the PPP. The pilot phase accomplished its goals of providing reference specimens of serum and plasma to a large international network of collaborating laboratories, comparing protein identifications with various fractionation and analytical technology platforms, introducing new technologies from vendor partners, generating extensive submissions to open source databases (www.peptideatlas. org/hupo/hppp (ISB); www.ebi.ac.uk/pride (EBI)) and bioinformatics insights, and laying a foundation for integration of plasma studies with organ proteome and disease biomarker projects. Results were published in a special issue of Proteomics (1), a Wiley book (2), and a special analysis in Nature Biotechnology (3). The specimens and databases have been utilized for many other studies. Participants at the PPP workshop in Long Beach, California, in November 2006 agreed to develop the current plans. The 2007 workshop was organized with panels of leading scientists in proteomics describing their commitments. The overriding principle is the sharing of data to advance the field and facilitate much needed comparative analyses. The first panel comprised laboratory leaders with advanced technology platforms. Ruedi Aebersold described the N-glycosite Nx(S/T) proteotypic peptide library approach for targeted analyses. Christie Hunter presented applications of multiple reaction monitoring with multiple transitions for each labeled peptide. Denis Hochstrasser emphasized the preanalytical variables and the advantages of starting from tissue, followed by the multiplex analyses of plasma (or serum, if immunoassays). Bill Hancock introduced multilectin affinity chromatography for glycoproteins, including glycan characterization. Ole Jensen introduced microparticles and phosphoprotein analyses. Richard Smith explained powerful ion mobility separation mass spectrometry and electrospray emitter design. And Rong Zeng presented label-free, integrated analyses after ethanol precipitation and pH elution of plasma proteins from diabetics. The second panel presented highly complementary bioinformatics and database resources already impressively connected with the PPP. Henry Lam announced that PeptideAtlas at the Institute for Systems Biology now has a human PPPspecific subatlas (see above); as the total resource has grown, more and more of the newly reported multiobserved peptides are confirmatory. PeptideAtlas applies to submitted datasets its uniform data analysis pipeline, including MS/MS spectral library searches with SpectraST (joint with the National Institute of Standards and Technology), which are much faster than Sequest. Lennart Martens described typical pitfalls in the analysis of mass spectrometry data obtained from serum or plasma samples along with tools that help resolve these problems. He reported that the PPP datasets were the first external data submitted to PRIDE at the European Bioinformatics Institute (see above); PRIDE assists data dissemination and links to EBI resources. Ron Beavis noted that the PPP was also one of the first datasets in the Global Proteome Machine, GPMdb (with the distinctive prefix 101). Martin McIntosh emphasized statistical variables, starting with variability among individuals and populations to be studied and discussed that follow-up analysis of the same individual minimizes genetic variation. Akhilesh Pandey described the Proteinpedia portal for sharing protein data and annotations. Both PRIDE and Proteinpedia use Tranche at ProteomeCommons.org, created by Philip Andrews of the University of Michigan, for storage of large volume raw datasets. Tranche provides encrypted file sharing among collaborators as well as open access datasets when made available. Contributors to the PPP should submit complex datasets with full experimental annotation specified by the HUPO Protein Standards. Users can find unaltered submissions at PRIDE, X!Tandem analyses at Global Proteome Machine, and TransProteomic Pipeline-processed datasets at PeptideAtlas. The final panel, moderated by John Bergeron as chair of HUPO Initiatives, demonstrated that the PPP and all other HUPO initiatives are complementary. EDTA-plasma specimens should be collected as part of organ-based studies for analysis in the same laboratories, followed by sharing of data on plasma and tissue findings with the PPP through the informatics resources just described. Helmut E. Meyer (Brain Proteome Project) reinforced the priority for starting from From ‡Human Genetics and Public Health, Center for Computational Medicine and Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, ¶Institute for Molecular Systems Biology, HPT E 76 ETH Honggerberg, CH-8093 ZAurich, Switzerland, and Department of Biochemistry, Yonsei Proteome Research Center & Biomedical Proteome Research Center, Room 423 Industry-University Building, Yonsei University, 134 Shinchon-dong, Sudaemoon-ku, Seoul, 120-749 Korea 1 The abbreviations used are: PPP, HUPO Plasma Proteome Project; PRIDE, Proteomics Identification Database. 2 This citation refers to just one of the articles used in this publication. HUPO Views

Training Laboratory Leaders for a Multinational Response to Infectious Disease Threats (Abstract No. 17)

Training Laboratory Leaders for a Multinational Response to Infectious Disease Threats (Abstract No. 17)

Epistemic cultures: how the sciences make knowledge

A Note on Transcription 1. Introduction 1.1. The Disunity of the Sciences 1.2. The Cultures of Knowledge Societies 1.3. Culture and Practice 1.4. The Structure of the Book 1.5. Physics Theory, and a First Look at the Field 1.6. Issues of Methodology, and More about the Field 2. What is a Laboratory? 2.1. Laboratories as Reconfigurations of Natural and Social Orders 2.2. From Laboratory to Experiment 2.3. Some Features of the Laboratory Reconsidered 3. Particle Physics and Negative Knowledge 3.1. The Analogy of the Closed Universe 3.2. A World of Signs and Secondary Appearances 3.3. TheMeaninglessness of Measurement 3.4. The Structure of the Care of the Self 3.5. Negative Knowledge and the Liminal Approach 3.6. Moving in a Closed Universe: Unfolding, Framing, and Convoluting 4. Molecular Biology and Blind Variation 4.1. An Object-Oriented Epistemics 4.2. The Small-Science Style of Molecular Biology and the Genome Project 4.3. The Laboratory as a Two-Tier Structure 4.4.Blind Variation and Natural Selection 4.5. The Experiential Register 4.6. Blind Variation Reconsidered 5. From Machines to Organisms: Detectors as Behavioral and Social Beings 5.1. Primitive Classifications 5.2. Detector Agency and Physiology 5.3. Detectors as Moral and Social Individuals 5.4. Live Organism or Machine? 5.5. Are There Enemies? 5.6. Physicists as Symbionts 5.7. Taxonomies of Trust 5.8. Primitive Classifications Reconsidered 6. From Organisms to Machines: Laboratories as Factories of Transgenics 6.1. A Science of Life without Nature? 6.2. Organisms as Production Sites 6.3. Cellular Machines 6.4. Industrial Production versus Natural (Re)production 6.5. Biological Machines Reconsidered 7. HEP Experiments as Post-Traditional Communitarian Structures 7.1.. Large Collaborations: A Brief History 7.2. The Erasure of the Individual as an Epistemic Subject 7.3. Management by Content 7.4. The Intersection of Management by Content and Communitarianism 7.5. Communitarian Time: Genealogical, Scheduled 8. The Multiple Ordering Frameworks of HEP Collaborations 8.1. The Birth Drama of an Experiment 8.2. Delaying the Choice, or Contests of Unfolding 8.3. Confidence Pathways and Gossip Circles 8.4. Other Ordering Frameworks 8.5. Reconfiguration Reconsidered 9. The Dual Organization of Molecular Biology Laboratories 9.1. Laboratories Structured as Individuated Units 9.2. Becoming a Laboratory Leader 9.3. The Two Levels of the Laboratory 9.4. TheImpossibility of Cooperation in Molecular Biology 10. Toward an Understanding of Knowledge Societies: A Dialogue Notes References Index

Cyril Stanley Smith – an Appreciation

Abstract With the death of Cyril Stanley Smith, the metallurgical community has lost one of its outstanding members; he was a laboratory leader, a famed physical metallurgist, and honoured historian.

Quality management in the laboratory setting

Laboratory management teams are finding themselves immersed in a sea of competition. The need to recruit and retain excellent laboratory professionals is becoming a major task for laboratory leaders. Paying attention to the needs of internal organization customers rewards the laboratory by securing a better position within this competitive environment. Orientation and appraisal systems have been found to be two important quality processes that can be continuously improved. With this ongoing improvement, the laboratory team is then better prepared to meet the needs of their external customers. Attention to these issues of quality management enable a laboratory to meet the challenges it faces. Beyond just meeting the challenges, the laboratory should then be poised to flourish in today's changing health care envivonment.