Rotation in Core Lab

Faculty

Core Lab Director: Dr. Alexander Kratz

Core Lab Associate Director:

Specialty Laboratory Director: Dr. Steven Spitalnik

Specialty Laboratory Assistant Director: Dr. Serge Cremers

SPEP attending: Dr. Tilla Worgall

Administrative and Managerial Staff

Administrative Director: June Mahoney

Core Lab Manager: Donald Giacomo

Senior Supervisor: Paul Richter

QA Manager: Frida Baljua

Client Services Supervisor: Joan Todor

Referral Testing Supervisor: Elenor Pinkus

Central Processing Supervisor: Irene Perez

Day Hematology Supervisor: Jessica Bautista

Day Chemistry Supervisor: Abdul Hakeem

Day Immunology/STAT Supervisor: Hetal Patel

Evening Supervisor: Sieuchan Ramjattan (Sam)

Evening Supervisor: Albert Nortey

Night Shift Supervisor: Deoraj Adeen-Flood (Kumar)

Night Supervisor: Deborah James

Weekend Supervisor: Sheikh Mohamed (Milo)

Location:

The Core Lab is located on the 3^rd Floor of the PH building.  The resident has a cubicle in the lab and is encouraged to stay in the supervisors office when space is available.  The resident should be in the Core Lab starting at 9 AM unless duties require otherwise. 

The SPEP/UPEP/IFE laboratory is located within the Specialty Laboratory area on the 2nd floor of Babies Hospital.  Dr. Worgall (53961; tpw7@columbia.edu) signs out SPEP/UPEP/IFEs and Amino Acid cases in the metabolism lab on Babies-4.

 
Rotation length: 3 months

Resident responsibilities while on rotation:

The resident’s responsibilities are divided into three areas, chemistry, referral testing, and serum protein electrophoresis (SPEP).  There is a lot to learn so it is recommended to start reading from day #1. 

Residents should meet with one of the Core Lab Directors daily, attend supervisor meetings, and other meetings of interest (try to shadow a director to get a feeling for the job requirements). The Directors and supervisors will provide advance notice of meetings of interest.

In addition, the resident should informally meet with the technologists in the area of current focus to see if there are any problems (meet with the evening shift technologists and supervisors who start at 4:00 pm to gain an appreciation for the differences).

General Objectives

1.   Learn the procedure for handling blood samples, adult and pediatric, and become familiar with the specimen rejection criteria.

2.   Learn the principles and operation of the automated equipment in the laboratory.

3.   Learn test methodologies, typical problems, and interferences.

4.   Become familiar with the normal and critical values for each laboratory test.

5.   Learn the clinical correlation of the various laboratory tests with disease states.

6.   Learn Quality Control Procedures as they apply to each instrument and methodology.

7.   Review the current requirements for accreditation from JCAHO, NY State, and CAP.

8.    Prepare an in-service presentation for the technologists and supervisors.

9.   Make an improvement to this website.

Chemistry

1. Meet with the chemistry supervisors daily to find out if there are any problems and report to lab director. 
2. Rotate through the various stations to learn about the different machines (see syllabus for schedule).
3. Meet with a Director to review answers to questions in syllabus, as appropriate.

Referral testing

1.      Handle all calls with questions for referral testing.  The resident is responsible to approve all unusual send-out tests after review of clinical indication and value of test (in terms of sensitivity/specificity and how the result will change patient care) and consultation with a Director.  All such requests should be presented to an attending unless there is prior experience with the situation.  In addition, write up the information on the referral test to add to the website so that future residents do not have to do the research again.

SPEP

1. Preview all SPEP/UPEP/IFE cases and have a preliminary result (sign-out occurs three times a week on a MWF schedule at 2:00 PM).
2. Obtain clinical history on all cases of interest (see learning objectives for criteria).
3. Meet with Dr. Worgall to review answers to questions in syllabus, as appropriate.

What should I do on the first day of the rotation?

Meet with the lab directors for instructions, up to date schedules, tours, and introductions. Resident should contact Paul Richter or Frank Mattes (senior supervisors) to get a broad overview of the lab structure and for a lab tour.  Following the orientation, the resident should meet with the supervisor and technologists in the area of focus as per the learning objectives.