ASCP’s Support of the
CDC OneLab™ Initiative

Aligning Your Lab Team Job Aid


Learn to leverage personnel strengths of your lab team members to better support your laboratory.

Blood Culture Collection Best Practices for Laboratory Professionals


Learn blood culture collection best practices for your clinical lab.
1 CME/CMLE credit available.

Negotiation and Advocacy Toolbox


A roadmap to advocating for the needs of your laboratory.

Building Bridges Series


Building Bridges Series #3 Coming in 2025!

OneLab and ASCP logos
Lab professionals wearing goggles
The CDC OneLab Initiative is an effort to bridge, train, and sustain a capacity-building community (OneLab Network) among public health and clinical laboratory professionals to support rapid, large-scale responses to public health emergencies. This effort includes developing a new learning management system for laboratory professionals (OneLab REACHTM). This includes a new virtual reality (VR) environment for clinical and public health laboratory trainings (OneLab VR) with both discrete scenarios and an open platform training format, featuring a 50,000-square foot virtual laboratory facility. OneLab REACH also provides the ability to opt‐in for access to an educational hub of training resources for professionals and volunteers performing CLIA‐waived point‐of‐care diagnostic testing in non‐laboratory settings (OneLab TEST).

Negotiation & Advocacy Toolbox Pillars

To advocate for your laboratory and staffing needs, demonstration of the laboratory’s value to the overall healthcare system and patient care is critical. Developing a structured laboratory strategic plan can help outline and operationalize the core pillars needed to demonstrate value of the laboratory.

Pillar graphic listing each pillar

Negotiation & Advocacy Toolbox Pillars 1-5 are now complete

Have you used tools or resources from the Negotiation & Advocacy Toolbox?

If so, please let us know through this short survey that will take less than 5 minutes to complete!

Training Resources

Blood Culture Collection Best Practices for Laboratory Professionals

This CME/CMLE-accredited, case-based activity is designed to help phlebotomists and other clinical laboratory team members increase their knowledge, skills, and competence in applying best practices for adult blood culture collection in clinical laboratories. Through a series of ten 5-minute cases developed by a multidisciplinary team, you will gain a greater understanding of current guidelines to improve blood culture collection practices to maintain aseptic technique, reduce blood culture contamination rates, ensure patient safety, and contribute to timeliness and accuracy of patient diagnosis and treatment.

Note: While these best practices represent the current gold standard for blood culture collection, they may need to be modified based on institutional guidelines in light of supply disruptions in blood culture media bottles or other consumables.

This case-based learning includes the following topics:

  • Appropriate use of aerobic and anaerobic blood culture bottles
  • Recommended blood volume for adult blood culture collection
  • Proper disinfection procedures prior to blood culture collection
  • Best practices to reduce risk of blood culture contamination
  • Blood culture contamination rate calculation and monitoring

The activity offers 1.0 CME/CMLE credit.

To register for this course, you will first need a ASCP account for the ASCP Store. If you do not already have an existing ASCP account, click here to create a free one.

After obtaining a free ASCP account, register for the course using the following instructions:

  1. Follow this direct link to the Blood Culture Collection Best Practices for Laboratory Professionals course page on the ASCP store
  2. Add the class to the cart
  3. Click the Checkout button
  4. Click the “I’m not a robot” button
  5. Click the Submit button
  6. You will see a screen that says Home and Dashboard, click on Dashboard
  7. On the Dashboard page, there’s a section that says My Education, click on the blue button that says My Courses
  8. You’ll see a list of courses on the next page that you are registered for
  9. Click the button that says Launch or Start next to the name of the course
  10. Then you will be taken to the LMS to start the class
  11. Following completion of the course, course credit will be visible on the Dashboard page, under the section that says My Education, and the button that says Certificates & Transcript

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

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Outline step-wise best practices for adult blood culture collection

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Improve workflows to mitigate risk of blood culture contamination

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Calculate blood culture contamination rate

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Understand the value of tracking and providing feedback on blood culture contamination rates

Case-Based Best Practices in Effective Test Utilization for Clinical Laboratories

This CME/CMLE-accredited, case-based educational activity is designed to help clinical laboratory directors, clinical laboratory managers, and laboratory professionals increase the knowledge, skills, and competence in effective test utilization best practices for clinical laboratory settings. Through a series of ten 5-minute cases developed by a multidisciplinary team, you will gain a greater understanding of current and evidence-based guidelines to inform and impact clinical test ordering practices and reduce overconsumption of supplies without compromising patient care. 

Some of the topics covered in this activity include:

  • Effective test utilization for pancreatitis, and cardiac injury and AMI
  • Blood collection tube consumption and conservation
  • Strategies for Reducing Repeat Daily Lab Test Ordering
  • Vitamin D Utilization – sound alike tests
  • Detecting Severity and Acuity of Inflammation

The activity offers 1.0 CME/CMLE credit.

To register for this course, you will first need a ASCP account for the ASCP Store. If you do not already have an existing ASCP account, click here to create a free one.

After obtaining a free ASCP account, register for the course using the following instructions:

  1. Follow this direct link to the Case-Based Best Practices in Effective Test Utilization for Clinical Laboratories course page on the ASCP store
  2. Add the class to the cart
  3. Click the Checkout button
  4. Click the “I’m not a robot” button
  5. Click the Submit button
  6. You will see a screen that says Home and Dashboard, click on Dashboard
  7. On the Dashboard page, there’s a section that says My Education, click on the blue button that says My Courses
  8. You’ll see a list of courses on the next page that you are registered for
  9. Click the button that says Launch or Start next to the name of the course
  10. Then you will be taken to the LMS to start the class
  11. Following completion of the course, course credit will be visible on the Dashboard page, under the section that says My Education, and the button that says Certificates & Transcript

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

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Apply proven effective test utilization best practices for clinical laboratories.

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Outline ways to reduce overconsumption of testing supplies without compromising patient care.

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Evaluate evidence-based guidelines to inform and impact test ordering practices.

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Improve communication with ordering physicians to more effectively use available resources.

Supply Chain Management Techniques

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Using Alternative Test Supplies/Vendors/Labs

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Testing Conservation Strategies

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Ordering Additional Supplies

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Continuing Communication with Vendor

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Educating Providers

Aligning Your Laboratory Team Job Aid

The clinical laboratory attracts individuals who are organized, detail-oriented, enjoy challenges, and are committed to contributing to patient care through timely and accurate testing. Despite facing staffing shortages, the laboratory workforce seeks to enhance its resilience and diversity.

This job aid is designed to offer clinical laboratory leaders ideas on supporting tasks that may align with their team members’ character traits, preferences, or personal interests. While not comprehensive, it aims to provide general guidance to better match the supportive tasks in your laboratory with the personal interests and inclinations of your team.

Lab Team Diagram

Events

 

No events are available at this time. Please check back periodically as new events will be shared here in the future. 

Virtual Learning Series

Building Bridges Across the Laboratory Community:

ASCP is collaborating with the CDC to launch, Building Bridges Across the Laboratory Community. The ASCP Building Bridges Across the Laboratory Community webinar series seeks to highlight and identify opportunities for collaboration and partnership (“building bridges”) across the laboratory workforce. In our 2025 series, we further focus on highlighting the diverse array of laboratory career pathways and how
exposure to formative experiences, often through collaborations, partnerships, and unique training opportunities, can shape these laboratory career trajectories.

Partnerships in Service of Effective Data Sharing

Topic: The fifth and final session of this year’s Building Bridges series, the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) Manager of Food Safety, Ms. Kirsten Larson, MPH, will present a case study to demonstrate the importance of clinical laboratory isolate submission to public health laboratories (PHLs) for whole genome sequencing (WGS) as part of the PulseNet system. Ms. Kelly Wroblewski, MPH, MT(ASCP), APHL Director of the Infectious Diseases Program, will present an overview of how partners share critical and timely data to support the influenza surveillance system.

Faculty:

  • Kirsten Larson, MPH
    Manager, Food Safety
    Association of Public Health Laboratories
  • Kelly Wroblewski, MPH, MT(ASCP)
    Director, Infectious Disease Programs
    Association of Public Health Laboratories

Twinning and Sharing Best Practices: Regional Partnerships

Topic: In the fourth session of this year’s Building Bridges Across the Laboratory Community series, “Twinning and Sharing Best Practices: Regional Partnerships,” we are excited to bring you short case studies featuring regional consortia (RCs) of public health laboratories sharing best practices, shared experiences of twinned laboratory partners (representing MO, Ml, and AK public health laboratories), and presentation of a large-scale regional Biosafety Training for both clinical and public health partners conducted by the Northeast Regional Consortia.

Faculty:

  • Lorelei J. Kurimski, MS
    Director, Quality Systems and Analytics
    Association of Public Health Laboratories
  • Bertina Su, MPH
    Manager, Quality Systems and Analytics
    Association of Public Health Laboratories
  • Ryan Bernard, MBA
    Administration Manager
    Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services
  • John Laurance IV
    Select Agent Program RO, Biosafety Officer
    Division of Public Health, State of Alaska
  • Jason Wholehan, MLS(ASCP)
    Bioterrorism Training Coordinator
    Michigan Department of Health & Human Services
  • Christine Bean, PhD, MBA, MLS(ASCP
    Chief Learning Officer
    Association of Public Health Laboratories
  • Jill Power, MS, M(ASCP), CMQ/OE(ASQ)
    Deputy Director (ret.)
    NH Public Health Laboratories, Concord, NH

Partnerships in Service of Laboratory Training & Fellowships

Topic: During the third session of this year’s Building Bridges series, Dr. Angel Fritzinger, Ph.D. will share a case study on the Virginia Commonwealth University/VA Public Health Laboratory collaborative training program for clinical laboratory partners interested in entering public health. Dr. Karen Honeycutt, Ph.D. MEd, MASCP, MLS(ASCP) will highlight the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s MLS program that supports unique educational partnerships to stretch the reach of their MLS training. Finally, Dr. Kelly Winter, Ph.D. MPH will wrap-up the session with a case study on the innovative and collaborative effort of CDC’s OneLab Initiative and its paired open access learning management system, OneLab REACH, which provides a centralized location for lab pros to access emerging training resources to support lab capacity building and preparedness efforts.

Faculty:

  • Angela Fritzinger, Ph.D.
    Scientist Manager (Contractor)
    Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services
  • Karen Honeycutt, Ph.D. MEd, MASCP, MLS(ASCP)
    Program Director, Medical Laboratory Science Program
    University of Nebraska Medical Center
  • Kelly Winter, Ph.D. MPH
    Chief, Training and Workforce Development Branch
    Division of Laboratory Systems
    Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services (CSELS)
    Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Supporting DE&I Initiatives in the Laboratory Workforce

Topic: During the second session of this year’s Building Bridges series Dr. Dana Powell Baker, Ed.D., MBA, MS, MLS(ASCP), will share a case study about laboratory outreach efforts in underserved communities, and Drs. Marilyn Bibbs Freeman, Ph.D., M(ASCP) and Cliff Sullivan MD, F(ACHI), FASCP will discuss how medical professional societies can help support DE&I initiatives for patients and their members.

Faculty:

  • Dana Powell Baker, Ed.D., MBA, MS, MLS(ASCP)
    Manager, Academic Partnerships
    Association of Public Health Laboratories
  • Marilyn Bibbs Freeman, Ph. D., M(ASCP)
    Deputy Director, Department of General Services
    Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services
  • H. Cliff Sullivan MD, F(ACHI), FASCP
    Laboratory Director, Cellular Therapy Laboratory
    Co-Director, HLA Laboratory
    Emory University

Responding to Emerging Outbreaks: Sharing the Load among Laboratory System Partners

Topic: In the inaugural session of this year’s Building Bridges Across the Laboratory Community series,
“Responding to Emerging Outbreaks: Sharing the Load among Laboratory System Partners,” Dr. Christine
Bean, PhD, MBA, MLS(ASCP) shared a case study about collaborative approaches to tackling a New
Hampshire HCV outbreak, and Dr. Rodney E. Rohde, PhD, MS, SM(ASCP)CM, SVCM, MBCM, FACSc, Global
Fellow discussed the multidisciplinary effort to launch a large-scale oral Rabies vaccination program for
wildlife in Texas.

Faculty:

  • Christine Bean, PhD, MBA, MLS(ASCP); Chief Learning Officer, Association of Public Health Laboratories;
    Former Laboratory Director, New Hampshire Public Health Laboratories
  • Rodney Rohde, PhD, SM(ASCP)CM, SVCM, MBCM, FACSc, Global Fellow; Professor and Chair of Medical Laboratory Science Program
    Texas State University

Increasing National Access to Mpox Testing by Leveraging Reference Lab Capacity

Topic: In this fourth session of the Building Bridges Across the Laboratory Community series, ASCP, and CDC are excited to bring you a case study featuring Suzanne Dale, Ph.D., D(ABMM) on how the Labcorp team worked closely with the CDC and FDA to validate and scale high-throughput testing platforms to response to the emergence of mpox during the summer of 2022. Reference labs are uniquely suited to rapidly increase testing capacity and access to laboratory testing to support public health responses. In addition, the large amount of data generated from high-throughput testing for infectious diseases can provide real-time insights on the epidemiology of outbreaks. Dr. Dale will share her experience collaborating with the CDC and the FDA to validate and scale laboratory assays for mpox, as well as insights from the laboratory data generated from offering testing nationally.

Faculty:

  • Suzanne E. Dale, PhD, D(ABMM); Discipline Director; Molecular Microbiology and Molecular Infectious Diseases; Labcorp

Using Wastewater Surveillance to Understand Infectious Disease Trends

Topic: In this 3rd session of the Building Bridges Across the Laboratory Community series, we are excited to bring you a case study featuring collaborations in support of the CDC’s National Wastewater Surveillance System. Wastewater Surveillance has been used since the 1960s to identify communities with polio transmission. During the COVID pandemic, this surveillance approach was modified to detect infection trends. Wastewater data is a leading indicator of increases and decreases in COVID and is used to inform public health messaging, resource allocation and personal decisions, like masking and travel.

Faculty:

  • Amy Kirby, Ph.D., MPH, National Wastewater Surveillance System Lead, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

3D-Printed Nasal Swabs for the City of Austin’s COVID-19 Response

Topic: In this second session of the Building Bridges Across the Laboratory Community series, ASCP and CDC are excited to bring you a case study featuring Juan Gomez, Ph.D. on how his team re-purposed existing and idle 3D printers at Texas State University to produce nasal swabs in support of the City of Austin’s COVID-19 testing response. This innovative strategy helped to locally address the widespread supply chain bottleneck involving access to nasal swab observed early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Gomez will share his experience collaborating with the city and other academic centers to support this effort as well as successes, challenges, and lessons learned to better inform future public health emergency response supply chain manufacturing and management.

Faculty:

  • Juan Gomez, Ph.D., Research Associate; Department of Physics – Shared Research Operations; Texas State University

Exchanging Best Practices & Creating Statewide Policy Change for the Lab Workforce

Topic: The New York State Laboratory Leadership Consortium, presenting on their mobilization to exchange laboratory best practices at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic to support local COVID-19 testing and emergency responses and subsequently to collectively impact state-wide policies affecting laboratory licensure for laboratory professionals in New York.

Faculty:

  • Jim Crawford, MD, Chair of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Hofstra/Northwell Health
  • John Tomaszewski, MD, Chair of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Buffalo
  • Jenny Libien, MD, Chair of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, SUNY Downstate
  • Eloise Aita, PhD, President, New York State Clinical Laboratory Association
  • Kenra Ford, Vice President of Clinical Services Operations, NYC Health and Hospitals

Volunteer Opportunities

No volunteer opportunities are available at this time. New volunteer opportunities will be shared on this website as needs arise.

Scholarships

No scholarships are available at this time. Please check back periodically as new scholarships will be shared here in the future. 

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