CSCC News May 2015

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CANADIAN SOCIETY OF CLINICAL CHEMISTS LA SOCIÉTÉ CANADIENNE DES CLINICO-CHIMISTES Vol. 57 No. 3

May 2015

CSCC Award for Innovation in Laboratory Medicine SPONSORED BY: ROCHE DIAGNOSTICS The CSCC is pleased to announce that the first award for Innovation in Laboratory Medicine will go to the Hospital for Sick Children (HSC), Clinical Biochemistry Division, for their CALIPER (Canadian Laboratory Initiative on Pediatric Reference Intervals) Project. The CALIPER Project distinguishes itself through outstanding contributions to all three focus areas of this award including: • Innovation in strategic planning and implementation of laboratory services based on best practices. • Innovation in development of new laboratory programs. • Promotion of a positive public image for laboratory medicine. This initiative has been spearheaded by the Clinical Biochemistry Division at the HSC which has been instrumental in making this an overwhelmingly successful Canadian initiative capturing the attention of the international laboratory medicine community and affecting laboratory practice around the world. The letter of nomination for this award came from Dr. Khosrow Adeli and was supported by John Racher (Managing/Clinical Director, Department of Pediatric Laboratory Medicine). Few recent innovations in laboratory medicine have so profoundly affected pediatric clinical biochemistry as the CALIPER Project. This project’s chief aim is to provide reliable reference intervals for accurate interpretation of biochemical markers of pediatric disease. It sets out to fill major knowledge gaps in pediatric population reference values, and reduce the risk of erroneous interpretation of laboratory data and the resulting risk of misdiagnosis, unnecessary medical follow-up and/or treatment. The initiative first began at the HSC but has continued in collaboration with several other pediatric healthcare centers in Canada. The work from the HSC has led to the recruitment of over 8,600 healthy community children and adolescents in the Greater Toronto Area, and has generated age and sex partitioned reference intervals for more than 85 biochemical markers so far. CALIPER is also working to transfer the calculated reference intervals to

ISSN 0826-1024

encompass all major clinical chemistry analyzers. The widespread applicability of CALIPER data is evidenced by the implementation of its reference intervals across many laboratories in Canadian and US hospitals, and through the adoption of CALIPER methodology by reference intervals-programs in other countries. Furthermore, the work of CALIPER has considerably raised both national and international awareness of inappropriate reference intervals, and how the new reference interval database will improve laboratory medicine. The CSCC recognizes the positive profile that CALIPER brings to laboratory medicine in Canada and the direct impact it has on patient care, and is therefore pleased to recognize the CALIPER Project and the Department of Pediatric Laboratory Medicine at the HSC with this prestigious award. Dr. Edward Randell, Chair, CSCC Awards Committee.

CSCC Award for Outstanding Contributions to Clinical Chemistry Originally from Newport, Monmouthshire in the United Kingdom, Trefor Higgins moved to Canada to do graduate work at the University of Alberta. He has remained in Edmonton working in the ever evolving clinical private laboratory system for more than 4 decades, and currently he is the Director of Clinical Biochemistry at DynaLIFEDx. During this time he has developed and improved many lab tests including toxicology and trace element analysis as well as routine chemistry. Early publications attest to his interest in reducing reagent costs and identifying sources of error. Trefor teaches clinical chemistry to MLS students, pathology residents and serves as a resource to the physicians practicing in Northern Alberta. He has been recognized for his teaching both locally and nationally, earning the Teacher of the Year Award in 2005 and 2012 from the General Pathology residents, and nationally, receiving the CSCC Education Excellence Award in

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