By Katie Sandlin, Product Marketing Manager – Automated ID & Maggie Moriarty, Product Marketing Manager – Blood Culture
As a part of bioMérieux’s upcoming programming to celebrate Medical Laboratory Professionals Week (April 18-24, 2021), Joel E. Mortensen, PH.D., FAAM, HCLD will present a webinar on “Driving Change for Better Microbiology”. Dr. Mortensen will explore how to successfully integrate standardized testing protocols for sterile body fluids into the microbiology workflow for a measurable impact in the laboratory and beyond.
Dr. Joel Mortensen is the Director of the Diagnostic Infectious Diseases Testing Laboratory at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. Dr. Mortensen has been a career academic clinical microbiologist in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine since 1991. His collaborations with faculty and fellows have resulted in more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, case studies, and text chapters.
In this webinar, Dr. Mortensen will touch on his own experiences with the driving forces in modern clinical microbiology—quality, cost, and time. Specifically, he will discuss how Cincinnati Children’s Hospital optimized these factors to improve sample quality and reduce the time to actionable results, while also decreasing laboratory costs. Dr. Mortensen will also touch on the process for validation and integration of testing three types of sterile body fluids: joint tap fluids, peritoneal dialysis fluids, and cerebrospinal fluids, while providing an overview of current clinical evidence and best practices.
As the population ages, the number of prosthetic joint replacements is expected to increase, resulting in a higher number of associated joint infections. This means that swift, accurate diagnosis and treatment of these infections is of greater importance than ever before. Dr. Mortensen will walk the development and implementation of a joint fluids protocol in his own hospital, as well as the long-term impact he observed from both clinical and patient perspectives.
Lastly, Dr. Mortensen will discuss an ongoing multi-center study that examines the detection of numerous types of sterile body fluids and the positive impact on time to organism identification, susceptibility testing, and overall patient care.
This complimentary educational webinar on “Driving Change for Better Microbiology” will take place on Thursday, April 22 at 1:00 pm EDT. To learn more and register, click the link below!
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