Linda Oskam
I am CEO of DATOS (www.datos-advice.nl), MSc in Medical Chemistry, PhD in Molecular Biology. I am specialized in all aspects of lab system strengthening: policy, planning, assessment, advice, training
Location Leiden, the Netherlands
Activity
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Please leave policy and conspiracy theories out of the discussion. This is a scientific courses and comments should be based on facts. Also, this answer has no relation to the question being asked.
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Can we please leave politics and conspiracy theories out of the discussion? This is a scientific course and answers should be based on facts. Also, this is answer is not related to the question posed.
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And still you should do it: better a bit slower result than an unreliable result. Remember what happens if you have a false negative.
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All test results should be confidential as is always the case. This does not mean that you cannot use it for contact tracing or for epidemiological purposes.
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Yes, the correct term is External Quality Assessment, but many people use External Quality Assurance.
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I totally agree, Agboola and Heidi. Especially since this will be a fight that may take a long time, it is important to make sure that our staff does not get overburdened as this may also lead to mistakes
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Dear Mulatu, I understand that you (or probably your country) accept all kits donated as you are probably with your back against the wall. But please check on the WHO or FIND sites whether these kits are reliable and of good quality!
There are, even in non-COVID times, a lot of "do gooders" who send expired materials to developing countries or who send...
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QA and QC should be an integral part of your SOP, so neglect is not possible.
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This EQA can consist of one or more elements:
a. PT (Proficiency Testing), where you receive a batch of samples and you have to test them blindly using the routine procedures (don't treat them differently from other samples!)
b. Blinded retesting, where a set of your samples are retested by (for example) the National Reference Laboratory
c....
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There are 3 different types of quality measures discussed:
1. Quality controls (QC): positive and negative samples that are introduced at the sample processing and sample testing stages of the RT-PCR. These detect flaws that occur DURING the testing process and are always internal: External Quality Control does not exist (to my knowledge).
2. Quality...
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Dear course participants,
First of all thank you Marguerite for the very useful summary. I would like to add one thing: we are now in the middle of a crisis, but we should not forget that we have to learn from this crisis and that, once the situation has normalized, we should use our experiences to sustainably improve the lab systems in the countries....
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Dear Brenda, the surveillance team is probably working their behinds off. What is important is to reach out to the whole population and explain why it is important that they report cases. In my country (Holland) the prime minister, the minister of health and the director of the NPHL have a press conference on radio and television every Tuesday at 7 to give an...
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Dear Nathanial,
did you consider including the private sector? The bigger labs quite often have large-throughput systems in place.
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Dear Hadil, I think that even is if you would have all the resources in the world, it would still be important to do social distancing and isolation as much as possible. Prevention is always better than detection.
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I think it is of prime importance to also include the private lab sector in the efforts: often the larger private laboratories have state-of-the-art high throughput equipment that can be used. If you are working in a government/MoH environment: please consider the private sector as well as you will need all the help you can get.
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Linda Oskam made a comment
The situation changes very rapidly. You can always find the latest data on https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6
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Linda Oskam made a comment
Hello everyone. I am Linda Oskam and I am one of the mentors on this course. In daily life I am CEO of DATOS in the Netherlands and my background is medical chemistry and molecular biology. DATOS advises laboratories, organizations and governments on the strengthening of laboratory services and systems, in particular in low- and middle income countries. I hope...
