The recent Calprotectin Regional User Group meetings, organised by Alpha Laboratories, generated lively and informative discussions between new, experienced and some potential calprotectin assay users. Over 40 participants attended across the three meetings held in London, Birmingham and Manchester, travelling from as far afield as Truro and Glasgow. The majority of attendees had already set up their service, but some are just about to introduce calprotectin assays and so were keen to hear about the experiences of their peers. Also in attendance were Jane French from UK NEQAS and Dr Arne Roseth, Gastroenterologist.
The round table open discussions included a range of topics relating to calprotectin testing. These covered extraction techniques, sample stability, cut-off, Quality Control and the current NICE guidance.
Jane French talked about the variation in UK NEQAS results, while Dr Roseth brought a valuable patient perspective to the discussion. He also talked about the future of calprotectin testing and Bühlmann’s continued commitment to product development. He demonstrated some exciting new and novel stool extraction devices that generated a lot of interest in the meetings- coming soon!
Ask your Territory Sales Manager for more information. Customer feedback regarding the meetings has been extremely positive, with particular comments on how valuable it was to get other users’ perspectives on testing and to hear about the practices in different labs. For people in the process of setting up a service, it was seen as a great opportunity to benefit and learn from the experiences of those who had been testing for some time. The user group meetings were a great success, and will be repeated next year.
Please let us know if you would be interested in attending future events by contacting us.
This article was published previously in Alpha Laboratories’ Leading Edge Newsletter – Summer 2014.
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