D_Curran.jpg (8435 bytes)If you were among the 18,719 attendees at this year’s AACC/CSCC Annual Meeting & Clinical Laboratory Exposition in Chicago, you know how impossible it was to see, do and hear everything. Forfeiting sleep and eating on the run can help squeeze in a few extra appointments, but when at this country’s largest gathering of clinical laboratory professionals, there is always more and always regrets about the booth not sampled. That’s why we did our best to cover it for you.

Inside, our AACC wrap up on page 26 details what we found new and noteworthy in clinical diagnostics. Let me acknowledge in advance that, even with a team covering the show floor, it’s entirely possible that we overlooked something that you did not. If that’s the case, drop me an e-mail, and I’ll try to get it in a future issue.

One highlight of the meeting was a press conference announcing the launch of www.labtestsonline.org, the only non-commercial medical testing site supported by the clinical laboratory community. The site is a tool for consumers seeking the most up-to-date information on PSA, HIV, Pap smear, cholesterol and other laboratory tests.

David Sundwall, MD, president of the American Clinical Laboratory Association, described the site as one-stop shopping for consumers in search of better understanding of the meaning of their clinical laboratory tests results. “Consumers who have been frustrated with the cryptic computer print-outs of their lab test results in the past will find Lab Tests Online an invaluable learning tool,” he said.

Web-surfing patients can select a lab test from the site’s list and instantly receive an uncomplicated explanation of the test, testing process and the meaning of their lab results. The peer-reviewed health site is collaboratively produced by volunteers from six professional societies in the clinical laboratory field: the American Association for Clinical Chemistry, American Clinical Laboratory Association, American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science, American Society of Clinical Pathology, American Society for Microbiology and the Clinical Laboratory Management Association.

“The timing couldn’t be better,” said Elissa Passiment, Ed.M., CLS (NCA), executive vice president of the ASCLS, citing a Deloitte & Touche study that said there was little concentrated information available online related to lab testing. The site is sponsored by grants from the “Big Five” lab vendors.

Another highlight was the frightening talk by Laurie Garrett, a New York Newsday health and science writer and author of, The Coming Plague: New Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance and Betrayal of Trust. Garrett combined her intimate knowledge of WHO statistics with compelling stories from her world travels to document the all too plausible threat of worldwide epidemics.

She discussed the tremendous increase in AIDS and HIV infection across Asia, outbreaks of the lethal Ebola virus in Africa, and the spread of diseases via human technologies — such as the well-intended single-use needle. Garrett warned that the geographic boundaries that once kept deadly organisms at bay disappear when microscopic villains can travel comfortably aboard the same jets that carry humans to the far corners of the globe and back home. Although much of the news from the developing world is focused on horror stories about known drug-resistant organisms, Garrett would like to see a global early warning system implemented, one that could rapidly detect new diseases and drug-resistant strains. After listening to Garrett, it became even more clear to me that we need to change our healthcare paradigm from “treatment, treatment and more treatment” to early diagnosis and prevention, the forte of laboratorians. Not only is it less expensive, but it works better too.

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Coleen Curran
Editor