Abstract
The area committee met on April 22, 1997, at the NCCLS (National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards) Executive Offices' Conference Center to review the outcome of March meetings of the subcommittees and to monitor the projects' progress.
The five subcommittees, on Specimen Identification, Specimen Container/Specimen Carrier, Electromechanical Interfaces, Communication with Automated Systems, and System Status, met during the week of March 17, 1997, (one subcommittee on each day) at the NCCLS Executive Offices. The sequential subcommittee meetings provided the opportunity for communication between the subcommittees as each defined its scope and plan for developing consensus documents. As explained by Charles Galanaugh, Immediate Past President of NCCLS and the Board liaison to the Area Committee on Automation, development of prospective standards is new for NCCLS. The purpose of the automation standards and guidelines is to ensure interconnectivity of the resulting designs.
Mr. Galanaugh stated, “A standard is not a standard unless it is used. A standard is only used when it is useful. And a standard is only useful when interested individuals participate in its development.” Therefore, it is the responsibility of all parties involved to ensure that the draft documents are widely distributed for review and comment by any organization with an interest in laboratory automation.
Because the automation projects were authorized based on an accelerated development schedule, NCCLS's goal is to distribute the proposed versions of two of the five documents by the end of 1997, with the additional three documents following in the first half of 1998. Due to the difficult task at hand, the overall status of the projects will be monitored by the Board of Directors, and the program's management team (i.e., the area committee and subcommittee chairholders, the Board liaison, and the staff liaison) will hold monthly conference calls to identify any issues that may impact document generation and completion.
The next subcommittee meetings will be held July 19–20, 1997, in Atlanta, Georgia, in conjunction with the 1997 meetings of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry and the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science. In addition, selected subcommittees may require a fall meeting to meet the document-development objective. NCCLS's automation standards program is being supported through contributions to its Laboratory Automation Development Fund. The NCCLS expresses its appreciation to all organizations that have pledged to support this important program over a four year period. To learn more about upcoming automation meetings, to request copies of meeting minutes, or to discuss opportunities for participation and for sponsorship and support of NCCLS's automation program, please call the Executive Offices at 610-688-0100.