CLSI Announces 2012 Teleconferences on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing Standards
Wayne, Pennsylvania, USA-January 2012-The Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) and the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) recently announced upcoming January and February educational teleconferences about antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) for clinical and public health laboratories. Participants may register for the upcoming teleconferences at www.aphl.org/clsi.
These teleconferences are based on the recently published updated editions of the CLSI AST standards, “Performance Standards for Antimicrobial Disk Susceptibility Tests; Approved Standard-Eleventh Edition” (M02-A11), “Methods for Dilution Antimicrobial Susceptibility Tests for Bacteria That Grow Aerobically; Approved Standard-Ninth Edition” (M07-A9), and the annual update of the well-known supplement to these documents, “Performance Standards for Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing; Twenty-Second Informational Supplement” (M100-S22).
The first teleconference is called “The Basics: Using CLSI Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing Standards”, and will focus on navigating through M02-A11, M07-A9, and M100-S22. Strategies for optimally using these documents and incorporating recommendations into routine laboratory protocols will be discussed. It will also review several procedural details of disk diffusion testing that could lead to errors if not performed as recommended. The teleconference takes place on January 19, 2012 from 1:00-2:00 PM Eastern (US) Time. The speaker is Janet A. Hindler, MCLS, MT(ASCP), Clinical Microbiology, UCLA Medical Center.
The second teleconference topic is the “CLSI 2012 AST Update”, which is based on the new CLSI updates for standards for AST. It is important for clinical laboratories to incorporate the new recommendations into routine practice to optimize detection and reporting of antimicrobial resistance. In January 2012, the annual update of the M100 tables (CLSI document M100-S22) was published along with updates of the standards that describe how to perform disk diffusion (M02-A11) and minimal inhibitory concentration tests (M07-A9). One of the highlights for 2012 will be revised interpretive criteria (breakpoints) for beta-lactams and “Pseudomonas aeruginosa”. These breakpoint changes and several other new recommendations found in M02-A11, M07-A9, and M100-S22 will be discussed. The “CLSI 2012 AST Update” teleconference is available for two sessions: February 1, 2012 from 1:00-2:30 PM Eastern (US) Time or February 2, 2012 from 3:00-4:30 PM Eastern (US) Time. The speaker for this teleconference is also Janet A. Hindler, MCLS, MT(ASCP), Clinical Microbiology, UCLA Medical Center.
APHL is approved as a provider of continuing education programs in the clinical laboratory sciences by the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science (ASCLS) P.A.C.E.® Program. Participants will be awarded one contact hour for each program they successfully complete. P.A.C.E.® is accepted by all licensure states except Florida. Florida continuing education credit will be offered based on one hour of instruction.
CLSI is a volunteer-driven, membership-supported, nonprofit organization dedicated to developing standards and guidelines for the health care and medical testing community through a consensus process that balances the perspectives of industry, government, and the health care professions. For additional information, visit the CLSI website at www.clsi.org or call 610.688.0100.
