Meet the Experts

Presentation Topic:
Basic PBQC

Andreas Bietenbeck is Medical Director of “Labor Poing”, a small medical laboratory close to Munich, Germany. Moreover, he serves as the Chair of the division Medical Informatics of the German Society for Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine e.V. (DGKL). His research interests include quality control of laboratory tests and especially computationally intensive methods such as patient-based real-time quality control.

Presentation Topic:
Dynamic function testing

A/Prof Chiang is a dually qualified endocrinologist and chemical pathologist. She is the Head of Chemical Pathology at Melbourne Health, the Head of Bone at Austin Health, ANZBMS Councillor and RACP Council Member (Endocrinology and Chemical Pathology representative).

Presentation Topic:
The changing landscape of NBS

Carla D. Cuthbert, Ph.D. is the Chief of the Newborn Screening and Molecular Biology Branch (NSMBB) in the Division of Laboratory Sciences, National Center for Environmental Health, in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She has held this position since December 2009.

Dr. Cuthbert gives leadership and oversight to NSMBB, a Branch that comprises several laboratories that support performance evaluation of domestic and international newborn screening programs as a Proficiency Testing Provider and by creating and distributing other quality assurance reference materials.

Under her leadership, NSMBB has focused on enhancing laboratory disease detection in newborns by implementing technologies and capabilities to improve test development and translational research, screening test performance and result interpretation, training and technology transfer, and by assisting state programs to expand screening to include new conditions of high priority.

Dr. Cuthbert is also the Ex-officio CDC representative on the US Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Heritable Disorders in Newborns and Children, whose mission is to “reduce the morbidity and mortality in newborns and children who have, or are at risk for, heritable disorders”.

Presentation Topic:
Quality Management in POCT

Dr Thyrza Laudamy Darmadi, SpPK graduated he medical degree from Medical Faculty UKRIDA (2004) and did her clinical pathology specialist from University of Indonesia (2013). Presently she is working as a Clinical Pathologist in Pondok Indah – Pondok Indah Hospital. In 2023, she received the IFCC Professional Scientific Exchange Program and learned about the Newborn Screening Program at Children hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa and Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto.

She is active in several organization as:

• Member Of Indonesian Association Of Clinical Pathology & Medical Laboratory (PDS Patklin)
• Member Of Indonesian Association For Clinical Chemistry (IACC) Quality And Laboratory Management Committee
• Member Of Laboratory Hematology Proficiency Test, Indonesian External Quality Assurance Service (INAEQAS)
• Accreditation Assessor For ISO 15189 From National Accreditation Committee (KAN), National Standardization Body
• Member Of Asia Pacific Federation Of Clinical Biochemistry (APFCB) Quality And Laboratory Management Committee
• Member of the Expert Commission of Newborn Screening Program, Indonesian Health Ministry

Presentation Topic:
Is peptide-based calibration in Reference Measurement Systems the way forward for standardization of molecular defined protein measurands?

Dr. Hoofnagle is a Professor and Head of the Clinical Chemistry Division in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the University of Washington. He serves as the Chair of the Accuracy Based Programs Committee at the College of American Pathologists. His laboratory has helped pioneer the use of liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry in the quantification of small molecule and protein biomarkers in clinical specimens. They are grant funded to develop and leverage analytical methods for nutrition, obesity, diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, and growth hormone activity. In addition to his research activities, Dr. Hoofnagle mentors graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and junior faculty and helps direct the clinical chemistry laboratories within UW Medicine.

Presentation Topic:
Mass Spectrometry

Brett McWhinney is the Supervising Chief Scientist of the Analytical Chemistry Unit (ACU) at the Central laboratory (RBWH), Pathology Queensland and is a Founding Fellow Faculty of Science (RCPA).

The ACU is a reference centre for biogenic amine analysis, immunosuppressant monitoring, metabolic screening, steroid analysis and therapeutic drug monitoring. The unit is also responsible for the provision of the newborn screening service for Queensland. He has over 30 years of experience in method development and validation in these areas. He has co-authored over 125 peer reviewed papers and regularly presents lectures on the introduction and application of Mass Spectrometry in a clinical laboratory.

Presentation Topic:
Lipids and genes in cardiovascular disease

Gerald Watts trained at Imperial & King’s College, London University, and was a scholar at Wolfson College, Oxford University. He is a senior consultant physician, specializing in the rapidly developing field of cardio-metabolic medicine, and current chair of the Familial Hypercholesterolemia Australasia Network.

He leads the Cardio-metabolic Service in the Departments of Cardiology and Internal Medicine at Royal Perth Hospital and is Winthrop Professor of Cardio-metabolic Medicine in the University of Western Australia. Research interests include fundamental and applied aspects of lipid disorders and cardiovascular prevention, and improving healthcare delivery for patients with high risk dyslipidemias, in particular familial hypercholesterolaemia and hyperchylomicronaemia.

He has supervised several Masters, MD and PhD students and post-doctoral research fellows, and holds several research grants, with multiple international collaborations. Professor Watts has published over 700 articles and other works and is a highly cited author. He is on the editorial board of several journals, including Atherosclerosis, Metabolism, Journal of Clinical Lipidology, American Journal of Preventative Cardiology, Current Opinion in Lipidology, and is editor-in chief of Current Opinion in Endocrinology, Diabetes & Obesity.

Presentation Topic:
Role of laboratory services to support universal health coverage in Low and Middle Income countries

Maxine Whittaker is a public health physician and health systems researcher working on improving the health systems/services to increase accessibility and acceptability of quality services to populations and a public health leader in One Health. Maxine has worked closely over the last 20 years on health systems strengthening for vector borne disease prevention, surveillance and response, management, policy translation from implementation research, and community engagement/community systems strengthening. She is the Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Vector Borne and Neglected Tropical Diseases and was the Dean of the College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences at James Cook University from Jan 2016- October 2021. She is a member of the Australian Government’s Partnerships for a Healthy Region Technical Reference Group and of the Queensland Government’s Biosecurity Ministerial Advisory Committee. She is the Chair of the Western Pacific Region of the World Health Organization Reaching the Unreached Technical Advisory group and a member of Asia Pacific Observatory on Health Systems and Policies Independent Review Panel. She is a former member of Board of Trustees of the icddr,b (International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research in Bangladesh), Research Project Review Panel of WHO Special Programme Of Research, Development And Research Training In Human Reproduction, and founding member of ExpandNet (focusing on scaling up from research into policy and practice). She has lived and worked in Bangladesh, Papua New Guinea, Zambia, Zimbabwe and worked extensively in Cambodia, China, Fiji, Indonesia, Kenya, Lao PDR, Philippines, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tanzania, Thailand, Tonga, Vanuatu, and Vietnam. In 2017 she was awarded the Royal Australasian College of Physicians International Medal in recognition of outstanding service in developing countries.

Presentation Topic:
Analytical issues – SPE

Dr Nilika Wijeratne is a Chemical Pathologist at Eastern Health Pathology, Victoria, Australia. She is also an Adjunct Lecturer in the Department of Medicine, Monash University.

Dr Wijeratne is a member of the RCPAQAP Advisory Committee on Patient Report Comments and Multidisciplinary Working Party on Monoclonal Gammopathy. She is a RCPA- Chemical Pathology Examiner and NATA assessor.

Presentation Topic:
An Overview of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring (TDM) and Pharmacogenetics (PG) Service

Dr Felix Wong is currently a Consultant Chemical Pathologist in Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong SAR, China. He obtained his RCPA Fellowship in 2019 and Fellowship of The Hong Kong College of Pathologists (HKCPath) in 2020. He completed his Genetics and Genomics training under HKCPath in 2022. He is practicing in the teaching hospital of The University of Hong Kong (HKU) and is a Clinical Associate Professor (honorary) of HKU.