Lab Matters Summer 2018 | Page 47

APHL 2018 Annual Meeting Poster Abstracts

improving clinical laboratory biosafety and biosecurity practices in the United States . This Forum includes over 14 different partners , comprising representatives from federal agencies such as the CDC , US Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services , as well as associations that represent and / or accredit clinical laboratories such as the Joint Commission , Clinical Laboratory Management Association and the American Association for Clinical Chemistry , to name a few . This Forum enables these key stakeholders to discuss policies , practices , gaps and improvements with the overall goal of sharing timely information to improve biosafety and biosecurity in the nation ’ s clinical laboratories . Over the course of the past two years , the Forum has met in person to discuss these clinical outreach issues and have assisted with the development of tools that are freely available on APHL ’ s publicly accessible biosafety and biosecurity website www . aphl . org / biosafety . The website houses resources developed by the Partners Forum such as the Clinical Laboratory Biosafety Risk Management Program Assessment Checklist ; a guide for biosafety officers to complete with their clinical laboratory partners and online trainings developed by the partners that can be used by PHLs for outreach programs , as well as directly by the clinical laboratories themselves . Aside from the website , APHL is also developing a new online discussion board , generated by the group to include both PHL biosafety professionals and clinical laboratory staff to share ideas and build on the current APHL Biosafety Community of Practice along with assistance from the Partners Forum ; creating a survey to be sent out to the clinical laboratories across the US to ascertain their level of biosafety and biosecurity programs .

Presenter : Michael Pentella , PhD , MS , D ( ABMM ), University of Iowa , Iowa City , IA , Phone : 319.384.1573 , Email : michael-pentella @ uiowa . edu

Communications

Health Concerns Addressed in North Carolina Through Public Health Laboratory Practices

( complete abstract in Quality Systems , p . 88 )

Using Podcasts to Tell Public Health Stories

O . Adair 1 , M . Bradke 2 , S . Johnson 3 ; 1 South Carolina Public Health Laboratory , Columbia , SC , 2 Arkansas Public Health Laboratory , Little Rock , AR , 3 Missouri State Public Health Laboratory , Jefferson City , MO

As a part of the Emerging Leaders Program ( ELP ), Cohort 10 is producing a series of podcasts as a method of communicating the importance of the work done in Public Health Laboratories . ELP , sponsored by the Association of Public Health Laboratories ( APHL ) National Center for Public Health Laboratory Leadership , is a 12-month leadership development program designed to strengthen the leadership capabilities of mid-level laboratory professionals . Cohort 10 , one of the largest thus far , is comprised of 16 professionals from public health and agricultural laboratories from across the United States and Canada with a broad range of technical and managerial expertise . The process used to develop the idea of using podcasts to tell public health laboratory stories was an exercise in team-building . Over several weeks , the cohort progressed from a brainstorming session which produced over 100 ideas on the most relevant topics in public health to a consensus of three topics for presentation by podcasts . Each podcast intends to tell public health laboratory stories , but each podcast presents different aspects viewed from very different lenses . Buy-in was assured by exploring all expressed opinions and allowing Cohort members to volunteer to work on the podcast that most closely aligned with their passions . As subgroups worked on the 3 podcasts , the Cohort as a whole reviewed the progress of each podcast to ensure the series continued to align with the original goals of the project . Studies have shown that people listening to podcasts has tripled over the last ten years , regardless of age and education . People today multi-task and podcasts are a great way to educate the public in a passive way while they continue to do other activities . As part of this project , the Cohort also identified the resources needed to produce the podcasts . The Cohort created and utilized a project plan to define the purpose , deliverables , in scope / out of scope items , risks / challenges , resources / estimated cost and assumptions . In this project , the major challenges were managing resources such as time , cost and technical expertise . The challenges of securing and operating equipment / software for recording , editing and tracking views were minimized due to support from APHL . The three episodes in the podcast series are :

• Public Health Labs in Everyday Life : shares how countless aspects of an individual ’ s daily life connects back to a public health laboratories

• A World Without Public Health Laboratories : scenarios of what would happen with / without public health laboratories

• Careers in Public Health Laboratories : highlights a broad range and diversity of public health laboratory careers with personal stories of the paths taken .

This poster covers the experience of ELP Cohort 10 in the planning , creating and distribution / marketing of three podcasts as a way of communicating important aspects of public health laboratories .

Presenter : Ona Adair , PhD , South Carolina Public Health Laboratory , Columbia , SC , Phone : 803.896.0991 , Email : adairoo @ dhec . sc . gov

Environmental Health

Fifteen Years of Preparedness : Are US Public Health Laboratories Ready ?

( complete abstract in Preparedeness and Response , p . 83 )

Twelve Years of Strengthening Environmental Laboratories — What Is the Impact ?

S . Wright 1 , L . Mapp 2 ; 1 Association of Public Health Laboratories , Silver Spring , MD , 2 US Environmental Protection Agency , Washington , DC

Starting in 2006 , the US Environmental Protection Agency ( US EPA ) funded the Association of Public Health Laboratories ( APHL ) through two cooperative agreements to provide technical assistance and support that helps environmental laboratories to build capability and capacity to better respond to emergencies . During the first four-year cooperative agreement , funds were used for a variety of

Communications / Environmental Health