On October 5, 2023, the Association of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine of Ukraine (ACCLMU), together with the National University of Health Care of Ukraine named after P.L. SHUPYK, SDA’s Clinical Hospital “Feofania”, and the Association of Medical Institutions of Ukraine, held a seminar “Actual issues of clinical laboratory diagnostics in Ukraine”, which took place within the framework of the International Medical Exhibition “HEALTH PROTECTION” – 2023 in the International Exhibition Center.
More than 300 specialists from medical laboratories, institutions of higher education, scientific institutions of NASU and NAMSU and other interested persons took part in the seminar.
The event was chaired by Serhii KLYMENKO, professor, head of the Department of Clinical Laboratory Diagnostics, head of the Center for Hematology, Chemotherapy of Hemoblastosis and Bone Marrow Transplantation of the “Feofania” Medical Center, President of ACCLMU.
During the work of the First Plenary Session: “Perspectives for the development of laboratory medicine and the organization of the work of medical laboratories in modern realities”, leading specialists in laboratory medicine and related fields highlighted the most pressing problems of the field, in particular, the economic aspects of ensuring the quality of medical laboratory research, establishing processes and forming a list critical results, as well as the limits of their values for hematological, hemostasiological and biochemical laboratory studies, the problem of screening for autoimmune diseases, etc.
In particular, Andrii PETRUH, representative of the IFCC at the 25th Congress of the IFCC-EFLM EuroMedLab-WorldLab 2023 in Rome, gave a report on the IFCC work organization system and the support provided by the IFCC-EFLM to Ukraine.
The listeners also learned from Volodymyr KOVTUNETS (2019-2022 – adviser to the Federation of Employers of Ukraine, deputy head of the National Qualifications Agency) about the importance and advantages of implementing professional standards and qualifications in the field of laboratory medicine and the role of professional associations in this process. He also called on the representatives of ACCLMU to join the development and implementation process.
Oleksiy VALOVIY, NAAU technical expert on ISO 15189, spoke about the usefulness of implementing ISO 15189 and provided some practical advice for medical laboratory workers.
The relevance of the topic of the Second Plenary Session: “Microbiological research in modern medical practice/laboratory medicine” is difficult to overestimate due to the current situation. At this meeting, specialists shared their experience in solving problematic issues of determining the sensitivity of microorganisms to the action of antibiotics, in particular, Kateryna RUDNYEVA, a bacteriologist, assistant professor of the Department of Microbiology and Parasitology with the Basics of Immunology of NSU named after O.O. BOHOMOLETS, once again emphasized the importance of using EUCAST standards, and Valentyna YANOVSKA, Doctor of Medicine, Bacteriologist of the Bacteriological Research Sector of the Reference Laboratory for the Diagnosis of Tuberculosis, Bacterial, Parasitic and Especially Dangerous Pathogens, spoke about the peculiarities of determining sensitivity to combinations of antibiotics and benefits of using the WHONET program.
It is worth noting separately the report of Olena MOSHYNETS, candidate of science, Sen. Sci. of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, dedicated to the problem of ineffectiveness of the recommended antibiotics, in particular due to the formation of biofilms.
Expert Andriy ALEXANDRIN (epidemiologist, doctor of medicine, director of the National Expert Group on Infection Control (NEGIC), WASH GUARDIAN GROUP, head of the NGO “Infection Control in Ukraine”) told what to pay attention to when ensuring infection safety in bacteriological laboratories.
As part of the event, the specifics of implementing standards (ISO 15189 and ISO 17025) into the practice of clinical bacteriological laboratories and the expediency of implementation in wartime were discussed. The public has come to an agreement on the objective impossibility and impracticality of implementing this norm (Decree of the CMU dated April 21, 2023 No. 376 “On Amendments to Appendix 3 to the Standard Form of the Agreement on Medical Services of the Population under the Medical Guarantee Program”) and the need to contact the relevant state authorities on this issue.
The event is included in the List of CPD events for 2023 under number 5506708 (provider number 1258). For participation in the seminar, the participants were awarded 10 CPD points in accordance with the order of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine dated February 22, 2019 No. 446.
Also, a satellite symposium “Modern technologies of laboratory medicine and their use in clinical practice” was held.
During the work of the Symposium, representatives of leading domestic companies – manufacturers and distributors in the field of laboratory medicine – focused on some important problematic issues in the practice of medical laboratories.
In particular, the representative of Grupotest LLC Olha POPOVA (production manager) spoke about the advantages of conducting immunohematological reactions (agglutination, Coombs tests) in gel, the representative of HOPEMEDICALLAB LLC Vitalina BASHYNSKA (Ph.D., product manager) – about modern methods of diagnosis and monitoring of multiple myeloma, and Dr. Alicia Utracka (Deputy Director of the Laboratory of the University Clinical Center in Gdańsk, Head of the POCT Group at the UCC, POCT Recommendation Development Team (KRDL), Member of the Presidium of the National Council for Diagnostics of the Republic of Poland) – about the national experience of implementing digitalization in health care and in the field of POCT studies.
