CP Symposium a Hit!
By Lynn McCain | April 26 2023The ever-popular annual Clinical Pathology Symposium returned to an in-person format this year in honor of Medical Laboratory Professionals Week and was a hit! The theme for this year’s Symposium was Resilience. Rebound. Readiness. Held in the football-shaped Dining Hall at the NCRC, participants were able to visit 13 booths representing multiple areas of the department where they could play educational games, learn about specific laboratories, and get their photos taken. A light breakfast was served and Karen Barron, Allied Health Education Program Manager, Kristina Martina and Chris Rigney, CP and AP Directors of Operations, kicked off the symposium, welcoming the attendees to the first lecture of the morning.
Resilience
“(Re)Connection: Building Community and Resilience, by Dr. Kelcey Stratton, Program Manager of the Resilience and Well-Being Services and Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, Michigan Medicine Office of Counseling and Workplace Resilience. Stratton encouraged participants to purposely find joy in their everyday lives, and to recognize how empathy and positive connections contribute to resilience. Quoting Jared Gottlieb, she encouraged the audience to practice mindful photography each day, finding “moments of grace in the endless stream of experience.”
Rebound
Following the initial lecture, participants were able to visit more booths, grab a snack, and visit, while others went back to their labs so their co-workers could attend the keynote Batsakis Lecture by Dr. Aubree Gordon, Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Director of the Michigan Center for Infectious Disease Threats. Gordon’s lecture, “Immunity associated with SARS COV-2 (IASO) Cohort Study,” focused on the study design and early results from the COVID pandemic-related study, including immune response to SARS-COV-2 infection vs. vaccination. Participants learned how antibody development via vaccination differed from those developed via infection and how these differences enabled researchers to determine the duration and effectiveness of immune responses to the virus as it continued to mutate in the population.
Readiness
The final session of the day, “Next Generation Sequencing Primer and Future Direction of Molecular Diagnostics” was presented by Dr. Nora Joseph, Assistant Professor of Gastrointestinal and Hepatobiliary Pathology, Michigan Medicine Department of Pathology. Joseph reviewed the criteria for various types of samples to be used on multiple PCR and NGS platforms, as well as the evolution of molecular diagnostic testing for infectious diseases and neoplasia. As technology continues to advance, turnaround times have decreased, sample sizes required have decreased but continue to vary depending on the disease state, and greater depth of analysis is possible. She also discussed the advantages and disadvantages of multiplex nucleic acid testing.
A special thanks to Karen Barron and the entire organizing committee for presenting this incredible educational opportunity for our laboratory staff, trainees, and faculty. This event was well-attended with a total of 132 attending one or more lectures. The symposium was filmed and will soon be available for individuals who were not able to attend in person with ASCLS P.A.C.E. credits available for those who view these sessions. For more information on viewing the symposium and/or how to claim P.A.C.E. credits, contact Karen Barron.
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