An interview with John Innocenti, President

Q: Does AUDIT MicroControls Inc have a theme for AACC 2009?

Innocenti: AUDIT’s theme for AACC 2009 is “Awareness.” This awareness pertains to the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) regulations that were enacted in April 2003 involving calibration verification. Calibration verification refers to both the verification of a test method’s calibration as well as to the validation of that system’s analytical measurement range. The calibration verification ensures that patient test results reported by all moderately complex testing methods are accurate throughout the reportable range for each test system.

Q: Which products are you featuring, and why?

Innocenti: AUDIT is featuring our line of MicroCV™ Calibration Verification products—the most complete line of calibration-verification materials designed to assist nonwaived laboratories in satisfying the CLIA-88 regulations and performing calibration verification studies. Under CLIA-88 regulations, laboratories are required to conduct these studies at least every 6 months as well as follow changes in many analytical critical reagents or major system components.

Our product line is unique in that we provide the laboratory with calibration verification material that no other manufacturer can offer. We offer a larger variety of products than any of our competitors. For instance, our MicroCV brand Glycohemoglobin, Homocysteine, BNP, D-Dimer, Tumor Markers, RF/CRP, ASO, Microalbumin/Microprotein, and Procalcitonin Calibration Verification/Linearity Sets are the only ones available on the market today. We continue to add these unique and hard-to-find calibration verification/linearity sets regularly.

Our online, real-time data-reduction program (AUDITOR) allows the end user to enter his data online and view his graphs in real time. Available at no extra charge to AUDIT customers, and available without loading any software (AUDITOR can be found at our Web site, www.auditmicro.com), the end user can store and print his graphs at any time. And these graphs compare his data to those in his instrument-specific peer group.

In addition we will also be featuring our MicroFD™ and MicroLQ™ Quality Control product lines—routine and specialty chemistry and immunoassay freeze-dried and liquid quality control products. Our AUDIT MicroFD and MicroLQ quality control product lines mirror those products found in our MicroCV Calibration Verification/Linearity product line. We have a companion daily quality control product for each of our Calibration Verification/Linearity Sets. The MicroFD line is freeze-dried material (FD), and our MicroLQ line is liquid material (LQ). The same AUDITOR online, real-time data-reduction program is also available for these products.

Q: Are you introducing any products or new versions/upgrades/updates of existing products?

Innocenti: We are introducing our new MicroCV Calibration Verification products for the Siemens Centaur and Abbott Architect analyzers, as well as our new MicroCV Procalcitonin Calibration Verification product.

Q: Tell us about these products you’re featuring. What are the competitive advantages, and/or how do they represent advances over previous versions?

Innocenti: Our MicroCV Procalcitonin Calibration Verification Set is the only product available on the market for this particular assay. Our MicroCV Calibration Verification products for both the Siemens Centaur and Abbott Architect analyzers have been approved by the manufacturer and are the only calibration verification products recommended by both Siemens and Abbott for their customers.

Q: Will AUDIT be making presentations or demos in the booth during exhibit hours?

Innocenti: We will have a video presentation in our booth of our AUDITOR Data Reduction Program. The program assists the laboratory with the reduction of calibration verification data and allows it to print graphs from its computer showing the relationship between its results and the peer group results in real time.

Q: Will AUDIT be presenting posters or scientific presentations during the meeting?

Innocenti: AUDIT will not be presenting any posters or scientific presentations during the meeting.

Q: Any other special events or booth attractions?

Innocenti: AUDIT had no other special events or booth attractions at this time.

Q: Looking beyond AACC, what can laboratories expect to see from AUDIT in the future?

Innocenti: The future is bright for AUDIT. We continue to add new calibration verification products as new assays and new analyzers become available. As AUDIT continues to improve its existing products and add new quality control and calibration verification/linearity products, it remains determined not to lose sight of who made it what it is today—its customers. Being a small company allows us to react much quicker in getting these new products to market.

We also continue to expand our MicroFD and MicroLQ Quality Control product lines.

We pride ourselves in offering our customers quality products at less than the price of what they are currently paying now for our competitors’ products. “We put quality back into quality control!”