Laboratory and the Electronic Medical Record – Issues and Opportunities Symposium Planning, Issues, and Discussion Airport Radisson Hotel Philadelphia, PA September 15-16, 2000 back

Over the past several years the Academy has sponsored several meeting with the aim of exploring the leading edge concepts of Point-of-Care testing. In this tradition, the NACB is planning a Year 2000 symposium, entitled "Laboratory and the Electronic Medical Record – Issues and Opportunities". The two day meeting is being designed to identify and discuss critical issues of the integration of laboratory information systems with requisite data archiving to the Electronic Medical (or Health) Record (EMR or EHR). Several organizations are cooperating to co-sponsor this conference including the Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (NCCLS), the Clinical Laboratory Management Association (CLMA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Philadelphia Section of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM). The conference will again be held in Philadelphia, on September 15^th and 16^th 2000.

A highly interactive forum is being planned, based upon the successful dynamics of the two previous Point-of Care Testing (POCT) symposia and the NACB’s Standards of Laboratory Practice (SOLP) series. This type of forum will permit the meeting participants, a cross-section of people working in the health-care industry, to focus on the evolving roles of Laboratory Information Systems (LIS) in the landscape of the rapidly evolving EMR. Following an overview by the moderator, panel members will have ten to fifteen minutes to present information on their specific points of view (please see draft program below). Panelists have been selected to represent their areas of expertise. The moderator will then open discussion to allow ALL meeting participants to ask questions, and present additional data. The moderator will allow open interaction between and among panelists and members of the audience, but will restrict discussions that are not productive or that are based primarily on opinion, rather than fact.

In addition, in order to maximize information transfer, we will supplement the discussion sessions by providing an area for individuals to present posters (see abstract submission form). The posters will be set up at the beginning of the meeting to allow participants to view them during breaks and refer to them during the discussion sessions. Please contact Jay Jones or Larry Kaplan if you are interested in participating in the meeting. And please, set aside money and time to attend this very important meeting. Send in your abstracts early.

©2000 American Association for Clinical Chemistry