MEMBERSHIP
San Francisco Public Health Laboratory staff. First row
(from l to r:) Lourdes Gonzalez, Ejovwoke Ememu, Jasmine
Magallanes, Tiombe Valone and Binh Phan. Second row (from
l to r:) Dante Afable, Stephanie Trammell, John Lei, Wilson Qiu
and Abiy Tadesse. Third row (from l to r:) Mayreen Padgett,
Jane Chu, Laura Cruz, Victoria Olivas, Jonathan Carlson,
Godfred Masinde and Kevin Sellers. Photo: SF PHL
Testing
• Introducing new tests for bacterial and
tubercular infectious diseases using
the bioMérieux Vitek ® MALDI-TOF mass
spectrometry platform, reducing TATs
from hours to minutes.
In 2017, the laboratory performed over
90,000 tests for chlamydia/gonorrhea,
the laboratory’s highest volume service,
followed by syphilis and HIV testing.
Other notable test areas include rabies
and foodborne pathogen clearances.
Successes
When Masinde joined the laboratory, a
chief challenge was to reduce lengthy
test turnaround times (TATs) owing to
aging equipment, insufficient staff and
suboptimal process management. Recent
systems improvements include:
• Introducing electronic test ordering and
results reporting for the San Francisco
City Clinic and San Francisco Aids
Foundation, which reduced errors and
cut TAT from over seven days to two.
The laboratory uses the ApolloLIMS
laboratory information management
system.
• Hiring all the staff that had left and
were never replaced
• Replacing most of the aging equipment.
For example, a Hologic Tigris ® system
that broke down weekly was replaced
by two new Hologic Panthers ® , each
with a capacity of 250 tests per load
and capability for multiple loads
per day.
PublicHealthLabs
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• Establishing testing for lymphogran-
uloma venereum, a chronic bacterial
infection of the lymphatic system.
Apart from the US Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, the San
Francisco Public Health Laboratory
is the only US laboratory offering
this service.
• Introducing Cepheid GeneXpert ®
testing for chlamydia and gonorrhea
at the San Francisco City Clinic
Laboratory. “In March 2019, we
will be introducing the same testing
at San Francisco Jail Health.” The new
system reduces TAT and enables testing
and treatment to commence in the
same day.
• Introducing a Public Health
Microbiology internal training program
for the new upcoming talented
employees from our junior staff
without them loosing benefits and
salary and not costing the department
anything extra.
Goals
• To complete the move to the new
laboratory facility on schedule
• To introduce whole genome sequencing
for select pathogens by 2019
• To automate QuantiFERON ® -TB
Gold Plus testing as well as tests for
HIV enzyme immunoassay (EIA),
herpes simplex virus 1/2 EIA and
Hepatitis C Virus EIA, using only one
testing system n
• Introducing the new QuantiFERON ® -TB
Gold Plus testing, which involves the
use of a second TB antigen to aid in
predicting which patients with positive
latent TB could get active TB.
• Designing the planned new laboratory
facility—an intense, year-long activity
that covered details down to “the
height of the door from the ground.”
APHL.org
Winter 2019 LAB MATTERS
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