ICCS COMMITTEE  NEWS & UPDATES
The ICCS is excited to share updates regarding the various committees. Please review the below and feel free to contact us at [email protected] with any questions. 


ADVOCACY COMMITTEE
By Jerry Hussong
The ICCS Advocacy Committee monitors and participants in activities related to flow cytometry regulation, reimbursement and assay validation.  Members of the committee continue to be actively engaged in meetings with CMS regarding flow cytometry reimbursement.  Other members are working to develop assay validations and publish manuscripts related to assay validation. The committee continues to watch and influence changes imposed by regulatory bodies.

FDA regulation of Laboratory Developed Tests (LDTs) appears stalled for the short term.  The Trump Administration is currently busy working on the repeal of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Recent information suggests that the regulation may be less onerous than was previously anticipated.

Advocacy Committee members, through various avenues, have taken part in meeting with CMS regarding flow cytometry reimbursement both for technical and professional services. It continues to work with many organizations including the CAP to see if anything can be done to mitigate the ongoing cuts to reimbursement. The ongoing cuts to flow cytometry services continues to be a major concern to ICCS membership.

Virginia Litwin, Andy Rawstron and colleagues are working on manuscripts/guidances for flow cytometry assay validations. Members of the Advocacy Committee and others in the Society have offered input and assistance in this effort.  We anticipate that these manuscripts/guidances will be submitted in 2017.

In addition, the committee has reviewed its current membership. We welcome a new committee member, Stephanie Toney, who is an Associate Director at Becton Dickerson.

The Advocacy Committee has recently sent a survey to the ICCS membership regarding advocacy. We have currently received greater than 60 responses. The survey close date is March 15.  We look forward to analyzing the responses.

Finally, the Advocacy Committee with participate in an educational session at the Fall annual meeting. The results of the survey will be presented as part of this session.

Respectfully submitted by Jerry Hussong, on behalf of the members of the ICCS Advocacy Committee.


EDUCATION COMMITTEE
By Fiona Craig
Login to your ICCS member account at www.cytometry.org to find the new e-Learning activity: Flow Cytometric Applications in the Diagnosis of Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML).  This activity was created by the ICCS Education Committee, e-learning subcommittee members Horatiu Olteanu, Buddy Fuda, Julia Bass, Robbi Montgomery and Vinodh Pillai. 
 
What is an e-learning activity? Unlike a CSI case or web presentation, it’s a complete package that lists educational objectives, leads you through an activity that requires your participation, and then tests your knowledge.  Similar e-learning courses are also available on the Clinical Cytometry Education Network (CCEN) at www.cytoed.org on Hematogones, the Role of Flow Cytometry in Renal Transplantation and Immunophenotyping Large Granular lymphocytes. 
 
Challenge your flow cytometry knowledge today by taking one of these e-Learning activities.

QUALITY & STANDARDS
COMMITTEE
By Andrea Illingworth
The ICCS Quality and Standards committee has been working on posting 3 more modules on the ICCS website this month. Andy Rawstron has written a summary on “Identifying appropriate reagents to assess CD5 expression” in which he defines standards of acceptability for CD5. We also are excited to post two additional modules on “Instrument Optimization". Since most platforms differ significantly in regards to the setup and compensation process and instrument optimization is such a crucial part in producing good results, we have written platform-specific modules for BC and BD flow cytometers. Future modules include “Reporting of CD5+ Neoplasms”, “Development of performance criteria for antibodies and guide for titration” and a more detailed and practical approach to compensation and trouble-shooting.

The Q&S committee is comprised of 4 groups (instrument optimization, reagents and panels, specimen preparation and reporting) which will address the most common areas of variability in flow cytometry. The information will be presented in peer-reviewed “modules” with the goal to provide the laboratory staff with a practical reference guide in optimizing their procedures.

Stay tuned for more modules and we encourage you to provide feedback regarding existing modules and share your ideas and suggestions for future modules.