a culture of service...
February, 2016
© 2016, Hardy Diagnostics, all rights reserved
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New Culture Media Catalog
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Hardy announces its new catalog of all culture media offerings.
This 85 page booklet contains descriptions of the 2,700 products that Hardy manufactures for the microbiologist.
Please have an account rep contact me about a price quote.
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Hardy's StrepPRO will quickly type your strep isolates by latex agglutination. It features a clear and distinct read-out without cross reactivity. It will even give you results for Group D.
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Announcement!
Hardy Purchases QuickSlide
We are pleased to announce that, in January, Hardy Diagnostics completed the purchase of GG&B Company and now offers these products to its customers under the name, QuickSlide™. Now Hardy can offer a selection of automated slide stainers for either Gram, AFB, or hematology stains. All of the QuickSlide stainers offer low to no maintenance, patented technology, great service, and at a reasonable cost!
View the QuickSlide website.
Please contact me to discuss automated slide stainers.
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For Strep Season...
PYR Test
Hardy offers an easy, low cost, and rapid method to confirm Group A Strep from culture on a convenient card.
Guaranteed satisfaction!
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TB MODS from Hardy
Identification AND
Susceptibility for TB in 7 to 10 days!
Hardy's low cost TB MODS kit* will detect and perform a susceptibility test for tuberculosis within 7 to 10 days. No instrumentation is needed other than an inverted microscope. Please allow us to show you how TB MODS can save time and money in the battle against TB.
*Not available in the US.
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| Brainteasers 
OK, this one might get you frustrated...
Get your aggravation
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If you perform plate counts for the food or beverage industries, you will want to try out the new Compact Dry plates. Fast and easy inoculation. No need for a spreader. Room temperature storage. Simple, colorful chromogenic read-out.
See our complete Food microbiology offering.
Send me your paper food micro catalog.
Please have an account rep prepare a price quote for me.
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All formats available...
Control
Organisms
Hardy offers a complete selection of microorganisms for your QC program. These MBL organisms are licensed derivatives from ATCC. They are available in the swab or pellet format; qualitative or quantitative. Order from Hardy for immediate service and delivery.
View the entire catalog online.
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Think about it...
* If all those psychics know the winning lottery numbers, why are they all still working?
* I just got skylights put in my place. The people who live above me are furious.
* Why do they sterilize needles for lethal injections?
* Do they have reserved parking for non-handicapped people at the Special Olympics?
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Calvin Coolidge
1872 ~ 1933
Governor of Massachusetts and later President of the United States from 1923-29. Affectionately known as "Silent Cal," but often had something significant to say!
"You can't know too much, but you can say too much."
"We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once."
"The business of America is business."
"I have noticed that nothing I never said ever did me any harm."
"If you don't say anything, you won't be called on to repeat it."
"To live under the American Constitution is the greatest political privilege that was ever accorded to the human race."
"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."
"Don't expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong."
"Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery."
"No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave."
"The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten."
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Want to receive the MicroBytes
Newsletter at home?
Want to view past issues
of MicroBytes?
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Did you know?
Hardy Diagnostics...
- Is celebrating its 36th year of serving microbiologists.
- Manufactures from two ISO certified factories in California and Ohio.
- Is ISO 13485 certified for the manufacture of medical devices to give you confidence in our products.
- Offers you detailed technical inserts, comprised of over 4,500 pages of information regarding microbiology.
- Services over 10,000 labs and maintains a worldwide network of over 65 distributors.
- Is a 100% Employee-Owned company. "If we act like we own the place...it's because we do!"
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QUICK LINKS...
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As Hardy Diagnostics
enters its 36th year of serving microbiologists in the laboratory, I would like to thank each of our customers for their support and loyalty. It truly has been a pleasure to serve you!
If there is any way that we can improve or expand upon our service, would you please let me know?
Jay Hardy, CLS, SM(NRCM)
President
HARDY DIAGNOSTICS
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New weapons...
Enlisting paint, curtains, and linens against
the war on Hospital Acquired Infections.
what's new and
how we can prevent these costly and devastating diseases...
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Fun Facts
about Leap Day
Do you know why
there is a February 29th?
As it takes the Earth 365.2422 days to orbit the sun and the current Gregorian calendar only has 365 days, since an extra day is added to help synchronize the calendar year with the solar year.
Every four years, a leap year with 366 days occurs.
Leap years occur in February and were first introduced by Julius Caesar more than 2,000 years ago. Before this, the Roman Empire followed a 355-day calendar with an extra month every four years.
Julius Caesar introduced the first leap year around 46 B.C., but his Julian calendar had only one rule: Any year evenly divisible by four would be a leap year.
The Julian calendar created too many leap years, but the math wasn't tweaked until Pope Gregory XIII introduced his Gregorian calendar more than 1,500 years later. There's a leap year every year that is divisible by four, except for years that are both divisible by 100 and not divisible by 400. The year 2000 was a leap year, but the years 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not. The added rule about centuries (versus just every four years) was an additional fix to make up for the fact that an extra day every four years is too much of a correction.
The chances of having a birthday on a leap day are about one in 1,461. Those that do are called "Leapers."
Leap year traditions: It's acceptable for a woman to propose to a man on Feb. 29 in Ireland. The custom has been attributed to St. Bridget, who is said to have complained to St. Patrick about women having to wait for men to propose marriage. Patrick supposedly gave women one day to propose.
George Washington was born on either Feb. 11, 1731, or Feb. 22, 1732, depending on which calendar you consult. At the time George was born, England and its colonies were following the
Julian calendar, instituted in 46 B.C. by the eponymous Julius Caesar. By that calendar, Washington was born on Feb. 11, 1731. But in 1752, England switched to the Gregorian calendar, at which time Washington's birthday was retroactively bumped up to Feb. 22,1732, to stay consistent with his age.
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Online Ordering Made Easy!
Watch a short video
to learn how easy it is
to order from Hardy on-line!
Pick
. Click. You're Done!
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A famous collaboration...
The Pasteur Team
Ever wonder how Louis Pasteur managed to accomplish all he did during his lifetime? Perhaps his wife and diligent assistant Marie Laurent Pasteur deserves some credit.
Marie was working as an assistant professor at the University of Strasbourg when she met Louis Pasteur, a young professor of chemistry. At the time, her father was the rector of the university. They soon fell in love, and, as a wise move on Louis' part, they got married in 1849 after he sought the permission of Marie's father.
They had five children together, but only two lived into adulthood. Having suffered the tragedy of losing three children to typhoid fever (caused by Salmonella typhi
), Louis and Marie were even more determined to discover the cause and a cure for the various infectious diseases which occupied their time in the research lab.
Marie had a keen interest in Louis' work and served as his assistant and secretary for many years. She helped to raise silkworms when they discovered the virus that caused the devastation of the silkworm industry in France. Later, she took care of the children that had been afflicted by rabies when they tested the vaccine that prevented the horrifying effects of that disease.
After the founding of Pasteur Institute, she lived with Louis in specially built quarters on the premises. She continued to live there after the death of Louis in 1895 until the time she died in 1910. They had been married 46 years. She was buried on the grounds at the Pasteur Institute after she lived to see her 84th birthday.
Pasteur's associates considered Maria to be a very important factor in success of her husband and their laboratory, thus making a significant contribution to the fledgling field of microbiology that is often overlooked.
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Zika Virus Update
Last week, American health authorities reported last week that nine pregnant women in the United States have tested positive for the Zika virus, One of the women gave birth to a baby with
microcephaly, a defect that has been associated with the virus. At least one other had an
abortion after severe brain atrophy was detected in the fetus.
Of the other women, one also had an
abortion, two miscarried, two delivered healthy babies, and two are still pregnant, according to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which reported the nine cases. All of the women had traveled to a country or territory where Zika is circulating.
Last month,
health officials in Hawaii reported the birth of the first microcephalic baby linked to the Zika virus in the United States in a hospital in Oahu.
Microcephaly is a condition in which babies are born with small heads and sometimes damaged brains. It was also reported that three women living in
Iowa tested positive for Zika after traveling to the Caribbean.
In the meantime, the CDC has warned pregnant women not to attend the Olympics in Brazil in August this year. Also, since the disease can be sexually transmitted, if a male partner of a pregnant woman attends the Games, the pregnant woman should make sure to use condoms correctly or not have sex for the duration of the pregnancy.
Websites for current information...
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chemical pick-up lines
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Making
Bad Chemisty
- A neutron walks into a bar and says "How much for a beer?" The bartender replies, "For you, no charge."
- If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the precipitate.
- What can you do with a sick chemist? If you can't helium or curium, then you have to barium.
- Know any good chemistry jokes? I don't zinc so.
- I have to tell bad chemistry jokes, because all the good one argon.
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Important notice
for our clinical customers
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) updated requirements for end user quality control (QC) testing of CLIA non-waived tests effective January 1, 2016.
As part of this change, CMS no longer recognizes the C
LSI M22-A: "
Quality Control for Commercially Prepared Microbiological Culture Media"
document or its reference to media
exempt from end user QC
. Consequently, end users must now document QC testing for all microbiology media using either CMS/CLIA default QC guidelines or through the laboratory's Individualized Quality Control Plan (IQCP).
Hardy Diagnostics has not changed its Quality Control Program and is unaffected by the CMS change. However, because of the impact to our customers, we have discontinued providing QC Vouchers with shipments because the M22 reference to exempt media is no longer accepted by CMS.
As an alternative to the QC Voucher, we recommend end users maintain documentation of Hardy's QC specifications using our Certificates of Analysis (CofA). Electronic copies of our CofA can be found on our website at the following location. In addition, we have an IQCP landing page with additional information, and we're providing customers with the following QC Voucher letter to inform you of this important change.
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