On 16^th November 2019, ABMLPS welcome Dr. Gaung Fan, Dr. Kailash B. Sharma and Dr. Robert Baisden from the College of American Pathologists (CAP) as part of a collaborative workshop programme between ABMLPS and CAP.  This workshop was held at the Devan Nair Institute for Employment and Employability in Jurong East, Singapore.  Over 140 attendees attended this event!

ABMLPS recognises the need for continuous professional development for our members and biomedical laboratory professionals in this fast-changing industry. This worship aims to update practitioners in the current development and requirements of CAP laboratory accreditation programmes, with a strong focus in the field of Microbiology, common accreditation deficiencies during inspections, calibration issues and an overview of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS).

Dr. Robert Baiden started off the event giving an excellent overview of the CAP accreditation programme. This was followed by Dr. Kailash Sharma who gave a fantastic talk on laboratory accreditation process for Microbiology laboratories to achieve the highest standard of quality.  Dr. Kailash as well as Dr. Guang Fan, also provided the audience with their vast experience in handling common accreditation deficiencies encountered during CAP inspections. After which, Dr. Robert supplemented the audience with his knowledge on calibration verification and linearity issues in the laboratory. Finally, Dr. Guang Fan gave a comprehensive overview of NGS platforms to the audience and their clinical applications.  All three speakers were all honoured and very excited to be able to present their expertise and views in these programme as well as having the opportunity to engage with ABMLPS’s members representing biomedical laboratory professionals from medical laboratories and biomedical research laboratories across Singapore during the lunch break.

After lunch and the presentation, members also had the opportunity to discuss with our fellow speakers on quality and accreditation issues faced during inspections. This has been a productive and useful workshop for all participants as evidenced by the strong support and satisfaction ratings given by our participants in a post-workshop survey. ABMLPS looks forward to more members attending and reaping the benefits of such opportunities in future workshops and events organised by the association!