AIHI Diagnostic Informatics team host the opening session of a ground-breaking 16-week course
On Friday the 14th June, the Diagnostic Informatics team from the Australian Institute of Health Innovation at Macquarie University hosted a workshop to mark the start of a ground-breaking 16-week course on the ‘Development of systematic reviews to provide evidence for alert thresholds for critical laboratory results’. A cohort of nine laboratory professionals selected from around Australia and New Zealand attended the workshop, and over the coming months will learn to conduct systematic reviews under the guidance and supervision of the Diagnostic Informatics team. The reviews will address the current lack of evidence and explicit reasoning for the selection of alert thresholds for communicating critical risk laboratory results in practice, and target a list of nominated tests for which evidence-based thresholds are urgently needed.
The program began as an initiative of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia and Australasian Association of Clinical Biochemists (RCPA-AACB) Critical Laboratory Results Working Party, and the idea was further developed into a workshop and corresponding modules by Dr Rae-Anne Hardie, Ms Julie Li, Dr Que Lam, Professor Andrea Rita Horvath and Professor Andrew Georgiou, with input from Diagnostic Informatics Higher Degree Research students Craig Campbell and Wilson Punyalack. This program was made possible by the support of the RCPA-AACB Critical Laboratory Results Working Party, who facilitated scholarships and recruitment of participants. It represents a strong cross-institutional partnership to inform the creation of harmonised best practice guidelines in Australasia, and thus improve the practice of evidence-based laboratory medicine (EBLM) in the diagnostic process.