Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) announces the webinar “Verification of AST Methods for the Implementation of the Carbapenem and Cephalosporin Breakpoints,” which will take place on April 26, 2012, at 1 pm EST.
Each year, CLSI revises its informational supplement on performance standards for antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST). In January 2012, CLSI published “Performance Standards for Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing; Twenty-Second Informational Supplement” (M100-S22), which contains carbapenem and cephalosporin breakpoints (or interpretive criteria) for Enterobacteriaceae that differ from the current US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) breakpoints. This is a challenge for laboratories because commercial AST devices are required to report results using the FDA (former) breakpoints. Therefore, laboratories that wish to implement the new breakpoints must perform an in-house validation study in order to meet the regulatory requirements of the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments and any other approved accrediting body.
In this webinar, the host will discuss when a verification study is needed for implementing new breakpoints, why such a study is needed, and how the study is designed and conducted. The webinar speaker is Jean B. Patel, PhD, D(ABMM), Deputy Director, Office of Antimicrobial Resistance, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The learning level for this class is intermediate.
Source: CLSI
