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Maintaining a clean and safe medical laboratory is very important for the health and well-being of both, the staff as well as the patients. A clean and hygienic laboratory is also very much essential to maintain the morale of your staff, and prevent the outbreak of infections and the cross-contamination of specimen samples. Clinical laboratories have the expensive and complex equipment, large quantities of medical supplies and several months' worth of disposables. So it becomes extremely important that your lab is not only safe and clean but well-organized too. Phlebotomists are often responsible for keeping their workplace safe and organized, and it is an important job responsibility as well. Here are a few things that you can do to ensure that the medical laboratory is always safe, sanitized and organized. 1) Ensure Cleanliness First and foremost, a medical lab needs to be kept clean and germ-free. In order to remove contaminants and other infectious spills, it is important to follow strict and foolproof Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) that ensure zero infection outbreak. Hospital-standard cleaning solutions kill almost all bacteria and help sanitize work surfaces, equipment, and other lab supplies. While cleaning the office, it is necessary to use high-quality vacuums that are fitted with High-Efficiency Particulate Absorption (HEPA) filters. This will ensure that even the smallest micro particles are removed and the surfaces are thoroughly clean. 2) Wear Protective Clothing and Gear Protective clothing and gear ensure that medical lab technicians, patients, and customers stay safe. Medical lab technicians handle potentially dangerous and hazardous specimens, so it becomes extremely critical that they protect themselves. A fresh pair of non-sterile disposable gloves is recommended for phlebotomists for every new patient. It is also necessary to disinfect the patient's skin before and after drawing blood. The syringe and the needle have to be discarded and the collected specimens, emptied in sample tubes, should be handled with utmost care. The phlebotomist should label the specimens and store them safely. The essential protective gear for lab technicians includes a lab coat, gloves, goggles and face mask. Specialized heavy-duty protective gear needs to be used when handling dangerous specimens, especially in the wake of the outbreak of fatal infectious diseases. Protective gear should be worn when cleaning lab equipment that holds noxious chemicals as well. It is important that lab technicians are trained in proper safety practices and are aware of the SOPs. 3) Waste Management is Critical Medical diagnostic labs must adhere to strict and stringent waste management protocol. The common wastes produced in labs include material wastes like used syringes and needles, cotton swabs, wipes and other disposables. It is necessary that they are discarded in properly labeled bins. Sharp needles and glassware should be separately disposed to avoid injuries. Biomedical wastes have to be disposed of following strict procedures and protocols. Often the government lays down rules and regulations regarding disposal of hazardous medical wastes. There will be separate color-coded disposal units for dangerous bodily wastes including infectious waste, blood products, contaminated equipment, and IV tubes. Medicines past their expiry date, hazardous drugs, radioactive waste and other disposables all need to be disposed separately. Any flaw or mistake in the proper disposal of biomedical waste at medical facilities can prove to be extremely dangerous or even fatal. 4) Stay Organized A well-organized medical lab will ensure that accidents and mishaps do not occur. A medical lab technician or a phlebotomist has to ensure that the samples and specimens that are collected are properly labeled and stored. In a case of wrong or faulty identification, the wrong diagnosis will lead to faulty treatment. Such grave errors often lead to lengthy lawsuits too. So you need to be very careful here. If your facility is in a busy hospital, there will always be an endless stream of patients filling in. Most patients will carry self-identifying tags, documents or badges. In other cases, you can ask for the details from the patient himself, or from an accompanying caregiver, family member or nurse. Once the specimen samples are collected, you are required to store them properly. Most bodily samples will need to be refrigerated if you do not have diagnostic or testing facilities in your lab. Sometimes patients bring in urine samples collected overnight or over a certain period. These specimens are usually collected from home using urine cups or with products having urine transfer tube. You will have to ensure that the sample is stored at the desired temperature and transported safely. Conclusion Medical diagnostic labs face several challenges in maintaining a clean and a safe working environment. If proper procedures are followed and quality safety protocols are implemented, this can be effectively achieved. (Image source)

This session will describe the unique roles that women have in medical missions and the challenges faced by women in the international missions context.

How can urban health care missions be done in urban settings, especially in government owned facilities? This breakout session seeks to address this questions. Ministry can be done in and through government hospitals and institutions by connecting with healthcare personnel, sharing the gospel and discipling them and bringing them into healthy churches. This breakout session will give some insights and specifics into how to do this.

This session will discuss ways to analyze future or current relationship for compatibility, ways to identify potential differences in five areas that affect their future or current marriage.This session will also give tools to adapt and adjust to the difficulties participants may encounter.

Different areas of the world provide the medical missionary with various opportunities and challenges. We will examine results of a survey recently published in the Christian Journal of Global Health to assess how certain health care providers may take advantage of these unique characteristics to engage in profitable and satisfying ministry.

What are the answers to the 10 most common questions to ask before becoming a missionary? From, "How to know God's will?" to "How to pick a missionary organization? and from "What about raising my kids overseas? to "How do I avoid burnout?" this talk will deal give you the answers.   About David Stevens: Dr. David Stevens is the Chief Executive Officer of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA), the nation’s largest faith-based organization of doctors. As spokesman for more than 16,000 doctors, Dr. Stevens has conducted hundreds of media interviews. Prior to his service with CMDA, he served as medical director of Samaritan’s Purse. From 1981 to 1992, Dr. Stevens served as executive officer and medical superintendent of Tenwek Hospital in Bomet, Kenya. He helped to transform Tenwek Hospital into one of the premier mission healthcare facilities in that country. Learn more at David Stevens page.

Malaria affects an estimated 300-600 million people a year around the world with around 1500 cases of malaria brought back to the US each year. This session will focus on the current treatment and symptom control of malaria around the world and in the US. Current research on prevention and vaccine development will also be discussed.

Most Christians today readily understand that the Gospel of Christ relates to our hearts, our spirits, our souls and even our minds. But many are at a loss when it comes to the body! Yet the message of the New Testament is clear that the Gospel has huge implications for how we think about and treat our bodies. Pope John Paul II and others in recent years have been challenging the global church to rediscover the importance of our bodily existence here on this earth and the implications this has for life and ministry. This workshop aims to highlight what the Bible teaches about the body and specifically to focus on the implications of this truth for Christians in the medical profession.

My wife, Lara, and I thought we knew a lot about missions before we went to Cambodia. We had both been journeying in missions for many years - I majored in anthropology, worked in a cross-cultural clinic, had been on several short-term trips, attended conferences and trainings, and advocated whenever we could for missions; we lived intentionally and missionally. Both of us knew that Cambodia would stretch our lives and our faith. What we did not realize was how much of that challenge originated from our own ideas and expectations of what it would be like.

The similarities are many. Perhaps the best preparation one can get for long-term overseas missions is learning to be fruitful as they serve cross-culturally and incarnationally in domestic communities where the needs are great and the resources are slim. Christian clinics that serve the domestic poor have a major role to play in preparing Christian health professionals for serving God's global mission.

This session will focus on the history, symptoms and treatment of Zika. Most of the talk will be focused on the recent outbreak, symptoms to watch for, personal protection, transmission and currently available treatments. We will also take a look at medications and vaccines currently undergoing investigation for the treatment of Zika.

there are more unreached today than there were last year when we met at GMHC. 21 million more to be precise. We are going backwards in our task to complete the great commission and that is not OK. Meanwhile our traditional missions model has sidelined over 99% of Jesus followers who look at the model and do not see a fit. Yet God has made everyone for His purposes and uniquely talented them to fulfill the purposes. Those who are talented in the medical profession, who are passionate about it and believe they were created to do it have been told they have to leave that and do something different, (oh and raise support to do it) or simply do it on a short term mission trip or even as someone told me last year at GMHC, 'forget your specialty and come do general health care'. We will continue to go backwards unless we engage the whole body of Christ and engage them wholly. In other words send them out to be who God has created them to be. As GP's, Surgeons, Radiologists, Dentists, Pediatricians, Nurses..... what ever God has uniquely made them to do. The world is changing, the missions model has to change. Come hear how we are changing the face of mission and how you, as a medical professional can be at the cutting edge of that - but be warned our call to you is to be who God has made you to be, where He is not worshipped. This is session is for those who are truly interested in using all of their life to reflect God's glory and goodness.