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º£½ÇÉçÇøappStudent and Postdoctoral Chapters are for students and postdocs interested in microbiology at their local university. Chapters host several events throughout the year, such as career panels, visits to microbiology companies, judging science fairs, etc. to promote ASM's mission of advancing the microbial sciences. Each chapter must have an º£½ÇÉçÇøappmember to serve as a faculty advisor.

is an online community for º£½ÇÉçÇøappmembers to network with other microbial scientists from around the world.

º£½ÇÉçÇøappis looking for 10+ volunteers to serve as community champions in º£½ÇÉçÇøappConnect. Community champions will post discussions online related to scientific areas of interest, respond to member comments, upload content and participate in conversations posted by other members.

Commitment

• Contributors will need to commit to be active in the role for a period of at least 6 months.
• Expect to spend approximately 1-2 hours per week on the º£½ÇÉçÇøappConnect platform.

Responsibilities and Expectations

• Post between 1-2 discussions a per week in º£½ÇÉçÇøappConnect and respond to member comments or questions within 24 hours.
• Contribute content ideas and topics that generate conversations.
• Maintain communication with º£½ÇÉçÇøappConnect Community Manager and participate in brainstorming sessions.

Eligibility

• Individuals are required to have excellent grammar skills and be able to use proper “netiquette.”
• Experience using social media platforms, such as X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn or Facebook.
• Must be an º£½ÇÉçÇøappmember.

 Application Process

• Interested members must submit the first.
• Potential candidates will be asked to confirm their availability before starting.
• Selected candidates will be expected to start contributing no later than 2 weeks after receiving the approval notification.

ASM’s CPHM leaders are introducing a designation program aimed at recognizing laboratories that demonstrate diagnostic excellence and promoting the field of clinical/public health microbiology. The working group will establish criteria and maintenance requirements for the designation. º£½ÇÉçÇøappis looking for 3-5 members.

Project Details

Initial Framework

• Rationale: 70% of diagnoses rely on laboratory data, but clinical laboratories are often overlooked in hospital quality process measures or as key components to operational success if not associated with monetary penalties (the laboratory gets called upon to help avoid losses, but does not get rewarded for the wins).
• Use Choosing Wisely and IDSA/º£½ÇÉçÇøappUtilization Guide as a roadmap to develop standards.
• Include quality measures and metrics in the framework, rather than prescriptive practices—inclusive, not exclusive standards

Why now? How is this different? What is the opportunity?

• Primary goal: To promote ASM, the field and gain visibility within and outside of individual systems (the laboratory should toot it's own horn).
• Focuses on the utilization of resources and not resources alone (not who has the most/best technology), clinical microbiologist consultative services and the value of clinical microbiology to patient care. 
• Establish º£½ÇÉçÇøappCOE laboratories as leaders in diagnostic utilization and stewardship before the opportunity is lost to other societies.
• Could eventually be expanded to include public health and laboratories in other regions of the world and align with º£½ÇÉçÇøappHealth initiative.
• Dovetails with the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) Antimicrobial Stewardship Centers of Excellence program while highlighting the unique focus of diagnostic utilization and stewardship. 
• Opportunity to fill in the gap that the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) designation does not cover (many labs are CAP-accredited, not accredited by The Joint Commission).

Eligibility

Open to º£½ÇÉçÇøappmembers in good standing with doctoral-level or bench-level experience in a clinical microbiology laboratory. Experience with quality improvement process development is a plus.

Commitment

• This is an ad hoc group.
• The group will meet virtually monthly (with the potential to move to bi-monthly).

 

º£½ÇÉçÇøappprovides 3 representatives to sit on the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) Board of Credentialing (BOC) Exam Committee to conjointly develop the M(ASCP) Medical Lab Scientist (MLS) exam. º£½ÇÉçÇøappis seeking an active member to fill this position, as one member’s term ends.

Eligibility

Open to º£½ÇÉçÇøappmembers in good standing with doctoral level experience in a clinical microbiology laboratory and board certification (ABMM, ABP or other). Experience with education and teaching medical laboratory scientists is a plus.

Commitment 

• Two consecutive 3-year terms.
• One 2-day annual in-person meeting in Chicago and occasional 1- to 2-hour virtual meetings, depending on the exam cycle.

Member Role

The committee/work group is responsible for practice analyses, item development and evaluation and maintenance of item banks.

• Maintain item banks that are appropriate measures of knowledge and skills for various laboratory professionals.
• Utilize practice analysis data to determine content of item banks.
• Participate in the development and maintenance of item banks by:
  • Developing and reviewing content guidelines / topic outlines based on current practice data.
  • Developing new items, including images as assigned by the committee chair and BOC staff.
  • Reviewing item performance, proofreading and selecting new items for inclusion in the examination item banks.
  • Monitoring the content, task and cognitive skill distributions of items within the examination item banks.
  • Monitoring the content quality and difficulty of each item.
  • Setting the standard against which examinees are measured.
  • Reviewing the statistical performance of each item to ascertain the quality of the content and structure of the item.
• Develop and review the examination eligibility requirements, examination content guidelines/topic outlines and reading lists for possible revision.
• Participate in all committee/work group meetings, conference calls and activities.

Country Ambassadors are senior scientists who connect º£½ÇÉçÇøappmembers across the globe, building relationships with key institutions, facilitating partnerships and responding to the needs of the local scientific community. There are currently 90 º£½ÇÉçÇøappCountry Ambassadors all over the world. 

Country Ambassadors are appointed for an initial 3-year term, with the possibility of a second 3-year term (up to 6 years total). Average time commitment is 3-5 hours per month.

 

º£½ÇÉçÇøappYoung Ambassadors are dynamic early career leaders who represent º£½ÇÉçÇøappin their local scientific communities, facilitating networking, professional development and collaboration to strengthen science globally. This prestigious volunteer position is open to students and early career scientists in the United States and around the world who are interested in working with ASM.

Young Ambassadors are appointed for an initial 1-year term, with the possibility of a 2-year extension (up to 3 years total). Average time commitment is 3-5 hours per month.