How NCCLS antimicrobial susceptibility testing standards are developed

TY - JOUR

T1 - How NCCLS antimicrobial susceptibility testing standards are developed

AU - Jorgensen, James H.

N1 - Funding Information: Ronald J. Zabransky, Ph.D., NCCLS Board Liaison John J. Zloekie, M.T., Staff Liaison population, and which could lead to a new set of problems, if implemented hastily. Despite these difficulties it is very important for the AST Subcommittee to receive feedback on its documents. A current goal is to find better ways for users of the guidelines to communicate suggestions or criticisms to the Subcommittee. One recent effort to deal with this issue has been the appointment of official Advisors to the Subcommittee from the American Society for Microbiology and the Infectious Diseases Society of America. These organizations represent two of the most knowledgeable groups of consumers of the documents. The ASM has assembled an oversight committee whose task Louisiana State University Medical Center New Orleans, Louisiana Glaxo, Inc. Research Triangle Park, North Carolina The Clinical Microbiology Institute Tualatin, Oregon Johns Hopkins Hospital Baltimore, Maryland The Cleveland Clinic Foundation Cleveland, Ohio Baptist Medical Center Jacksonville, Florida MicroScan Division Baxter Healthcare Corporation West Sacramento, California Hoechst-Roussel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Somerville, New Jersey Institutes for Microbiology Research Nashville, Tennessee University of California Irvine Medical Center Orange, California Wadsworth VA Medical Center Los Angeles, California Mayo Clinic Rochester, Minnesota Sinai Samaritan Medical Center Milwaukee, Wisconsin NCCLS Villanova, Pennsylvania it is to review and comment on all NCCLS microbiology documents. These advisors have been very helpful in providing an organized source of user feedback to the Subcommittee. Other immediate goals of the AST Subcommittee include providing additional guidance on testing of fastidious bacteria, the continued evolution of the anaerobe testing document (Document M 1 l-A2 is scheduled for publication in late 1990), further refinement of the information in Table 1 of M2 and M7 regarding selection of drugs for routine testing and reporting (user feedback is especially needed here), and exploring new means of communicating the material contained in the three main documents of the Subcommittee. The possibility of producing video tapes demonstrating the procedures described in the documents is under consideration by the NCCLS Board of Directors, particularly in view of the growing use of the documents in non-English-speaking countries where a visual depiction of susceptibility testing procedures would be helpful. The NCCLS process is a participatory endeavor. It is important that clinical microbiologists and infectious disease practitioners recognize the opportunity to participate in the consensus process by commenting on the published standards of the AST Subcommittee either by direct communication to the NCCLS office in Villanova or through the appointed representatives of their professional organizations. The important element of the consensus building process is participation.

PY - 1990/10/15

Y1 - 1990/10/15

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=44949289246&partnerID=8YFLogxK

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U2 - 10.1016/0196-4399(90)90002-S

DO - 10.1016/0196-4399(90)90002-S

M3 - Editorial

AN - SCOPUS:44949289246

SN - 0196-4399

VL - 12

SP - 157

EP - 159

JO - Clinical Microbiology Newsletter

JF - Clinical Microbiology Newsletter

IS - 20

ER -