Minutes NASCOLA Executive Committee Conference Call - May 31 ...

Minutes
NASCOLA Executive Committee
Conference Call - May 31, 2005
The meeting was called to order by Dr Schmaier at 4:10 pm EDT. The meeting took place by
conference call. The agenda and proposed by-law/charter revisions had previously been
circulated by e-mail.
1. Roll call and Welcome
Those in attendance:
Dr Alvin Schmaier (President)
University of Michigan
Dr Ellinor Peerschke (Vice-President) NY Presbyterian/Cornell Medical Center
Dr Cathy Hayward (MAL)
Hamilton Health Sciences, McMaster University
Dr James Zehnder (MAL)
Stanford University
Dr William Nichols (Past-President) Mayo Clinic (ex officio)
Ms Marlies Ledford-Kraemer (Executive Secy) CLOT-ED, Inc (ex officio)
Dr Elizabeth Van Cott (Secretary) Massachusetts General Hospital
Dr Richard Marlar (QA Director)
Oklahoma City VA (ex officio)
Absent:
Dr John Francis (Treasurer)
Ms Elizabeth Plumhoff (MAL)
Florida Hospital
Mayo Clinic
2. Mayo Conference June 2005 update
The registration has exceeded expectations: >200 registrants, with more continuing to
enroll, 31 faculty, 50-60 industry representatives, and 17 companies giving educational
grants. ACTION ITEM: It was proposed that this meeting be repeated approximately
every two years. To help potential attendees obtain funding to attend, it was proposed
that future conferences might have poster presentations, as many institutions allow
employees to attend only if they are presenting.
3. Committee Reports
Proficiency Testing Committee chaired by Dr Ellinor Peerschke
The subcommittee chairs met by conference call 9-May-2005. Dr Peerschke asked
them to contact their subcommittee members and identify interesting elements to
investigate further. For example, the von Willebrand Factor subcommittee plans to
develop a questionnaire about VWF multimer testing. Ms Ledford-Kraemer added that
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Dr Piet Meijer from ECAT plans to have a report summarizing results of the Factor VIII
inhibitor pilot by the end of June. ACTION ITEM: The next meeting is planned for July.
Education Committee chaired by Dr Cathy Hayward
The committee met by conference call on 19-April-2005. The Mayo conference was
discussed. The request for a ribbon-badge for NASCOLA Executive Committee
members at the conference was not approved. NASCOLA questionnaires were
discussed. The Antithrombotics/Anti-platelet questionnaire has been distributed to the
NASCOLA membership. ACTION ITEM: In analyzing the Lupus Anticoagulant
questionnaire, Dr Hayward noted that it is a lot more work than anticipated, and that the
limits of resources for data analysis be considered in developing future questionnaires.
She also cautioned against distributing too many questionnaires to the membership to
avoid membership fatigue.
Membership Committee
Ms Ledford-Kraemer reported that there are 67 members: 11 Associate, 54 Institution,
and 2 Individual. ~12 laboratories are delinquent on their payment. There is ~$51,000
in the NASCOLA checking account. The ECAT bill has been received by Dr John
Francis. ACTION ITEM: Ms Ledford-Kraemer says she will review the ECAT bill prior to
the NASCOLA Treasurer releasing funds to ECAT.
Website Committee
Ms Ledford-Kraemer noted that the website is up-to-date. NO FURTHER ACTION
RECOMMENDED.
4. Edit By-laws
Only 17 members responded to the ballot regarding the proposed changes to the charter
and by-laws, which is not a majority. The proposed changes were circulated to the
Executive Committee prior to today’s meeting. ACTION ITEM: Dr Schmaier requested
that Executive Committee members e-mail to him their opinions/suggestions about the
proposals. Once approved by the Executive Committee, the proposed changes will be
circulated to the membership.
5. Finances
The agenda items, creating a business checking account and changing of signatories,
was DEFERRED.
6. Publications Committee
The possibility of establishing this committee was discussed at the previous conference
call. ACTION ITEM: Dr Schmaier requested that Executive Committee members e-mail
to him their opinions about this possibility, as he has not yet received any feedback.
7. Midwest Coag Annual Meeting:
Ms Ledford-Kraemer reported that this meeting went very well and has received a great
deal of positive feedback. ~300 persons were in attendance. Dr Doug Triplett was
present and was honored at this meeting, and he very much enjoyed the tribute. NO
FURTHER ACTION RECOMMENDED.
8. Annual NASCOLA Meeting at ASH
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The program will likely include a presentation about the Lupus Anticoagulant
questionnaire. To maintain a theme, it was proposed that Dr Kandice Kottke-Marchant
also present her findings from the 2004 Lupus Anticoagulant NASCOLA proficiency
testing surveys through her work as subcommittee chair of the Lupus Anticoagulant
PT/EQA committee. This analysis has not begun yet. ACTION ITEMS: Discuss with Dr
Kottke-Marchant. Ms Ledford-Kraemer will collate 2004 Lupus Anticoagulant survey
data. Dr Schmaier requested that any ideas regarding a meeting location be forwarded
to him by e-mail. Ms Kay Levens from Louisiana Coagulation was provided as a contact
person for location suggestions.
9. Requests for Additional Proficiency Testing Samples
It was proposed that additional proficiency testing samples continue to be provided for
participants who did not receive a sample(s), or who received a broken sample. For
participants who request additional samples for reasons such as allowing multiple shifts
or multiple technologists to perform the assays, it was proposed that they be
allowed/required to purchase the additional samples. ACTION ITEM: This will be
discussed with Dr Meijer at the upcoming Mayo Conference in June. The proposal for
purchasing additional samples will be: NASCOLA receives the request for additional
samples from the NASCOLA member and NASCOLA forwards the request to ECAT,
ECAT will mail the sample to NASCOLA, who will then forward the sample to the
NASCOLA member.
10. Other Business
Platelet function testing guidelines (eg. NCCLS, now CLSI) were briefly discussed.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:15 pm EST.
Respectfully submitted by NASCOLA Secretary Dr Elizabeth Van Cott, May 31, 2005.
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