Thanks to India

Posted by Sten Westgard, MS

I just wanted to share some pictures of a trip taken back in late April.

The Asian Society of Continuing Medical Education was kind enough to invite me to present in a workshop titled "Assuring Quality, Standardization, and Efficiency in the Laboratory 2012"  In Delhi and Mumbai.

Group picture, Mumbai

More pictures, after the jump.

[Full disclosure: Abbott Diagnostics also sponsored this workshop. My time and travel were also sponsored by Abbott Diagnostics.]

The workshops were particularly nice because they brought together experts and laboratory managers from around the world with different experiences. It's not often that you get a synthesis of both the informatics, automation, quality control, method validation, and accreditation. This was a "full-spectrum" workshop, not a narrow-cast session on just one topic in isolation.

I spoke on Six Sigma as well as Method Validation

Dr. Liane Bauer of Abbott Diagnostics discussed the role of ISO 15189 in the lab

Dr. Barnali Das talked about using EP15, a method verification protocol, in her laboratory

Ed Mede of Abbott Diagnostics talked about informatics and automation and where laboratories get their biggest gains in efficiency and productivity

Sharon Cox of St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma, talked about how her laboratory was doing it all, informatics, automation, and more.

Group picture, New Delhi.

We had hundreds of attendees in both cities, and the participants were very actively engaged, asking great questions and demonstrating that they were already thinking about how to implement the tools presented at the workshops. It was very impressive to see the high level of understanding of laboratory professionals in India. The one resounding agreement at the end of both workshops was that more education and training is needed in India on these topics.

Again, thanks to the Asian Society of Continuing Medical Education and Abbott Diagnostics for sponsoring these workshops.