NASCOLANorth American Specialized Coagulation Laboratory Association

2011–2012 NASCOLA Officers

President: Elizabeth M. Van Cott, MDMassachusetts General Hospital

Vice President: James L. Zehnder, MD Stanford University School of Medicine

Secretary: Barbara D. Young, MT(ASCP) Mid America Comprehensive Coagulation Saint Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City

Treasurer: Dorothy M. Adcock Funk, MDEsoterix Coagulation

Members At Large:

Suzanne M. Hoffman, MT(ASCP) University of Wisconsin – Madison

Karen A. Moffat, BEd, FCSMLS(D) Hamilton Regional LaboratoryMedicine ProgramMcMaster University

Rajiv K. Pruthi, MBBSMayo Clinic Rochester

Immediate Past President:

Catherine P.M. Hayward, MD, PhDHamilton Regional LaboratoryMedicine ProgramMcMaster University

QA Program Director:

Richard A. Marlar, PhDVA Medical Center – Oklahoma City

Executive Secretary:

Elizabeth A. Plumhoff, MLS(ASCP)CM

Mayo Clinic Rochester

NASCOLA welcomes membership at various levels of participation:

Institution Member (eg, hospital or reference laboratory), Associate (industry) Member, and Individual Member. Institution and Associate Members may choose whether or not they wish to participate in the Proficiency Testing Program.

For further information relating to the organization, its members, and the Proficiency Testing Program, please visit the web site at: www.nascola.com.

For a membership application, contact NASCOLA’s Executive Secretary, Elizabeth A. Plumhoff, by e-mail at info@nascola.com.

www.nascola.com

NASCOLA is a nonprofit organization incorporated under USA law in 2000.

NASCOLA’s primary mission is to provide

external quality assessment (proficiency testing) for

tests used to diagnose bleeding or prothrombotic

disorders, thereby promoting high standards of

performance and practice for specialized coagulation

laboratories in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Central

America and the Caribbean. Proficiency testing is

offered at low cost for many special coagulation tests

(factor deficiencies, hypercoagulability, etc) including

those that are rarely assessed by other programs

(factor XIII, factor VIII inhibitor, fibrinolysis assays,

interpretation of platelet aggregation findings,

platelet dense granule evaluation, and others).

Other missions of NASCOLA include:■ Promote education for physicians, laboratory

technologists, and other health care professionals

through our scientific and educational publications

and meetings such as the Mayo Clinic/NASCOLA,

ISLH/NASCOLA, and HTRS/NASCOLA symposia.

Members can join subcommittees to participate

in NASCOLA research, publications, and

educational initiatives.

■ Enhance communication among laboratories

performing specialized coagulation testing

■ Develop guidelines for appropriate use,

performance and interpretation of coagulation

tests and results

■ Provide a forum for critical evaluation of

existing and new laboratory test procedures,

instrumentation and reagents

■ Collaborate with other national and international

organizations focused on providing external quality

assessment for hemostasis and thrombosis testing

■ Support collaborative research

For Proficiency Testing, NASCOLA has formed an alliance with ECAT Foundation to

distribute ECAT’s well established proficiency testing

program to participating NASCOLA laboratories.

NASCOLA also offers its own, unique proficiency

testing program for evaluating platelet disorders.

Surveys are distributed quarterly or semiannually, and

participants may order any combination of individual

plasma, platelet, or molecular testing modules that

meet their laboratory’s testing needs.

List of Proficiency Testing Modules

■ Thrombophilia module (antithrombin [activity and

antigen], protein C activity [chromogenic and

clotting], protein C antigen, protein S activity, protein

S antigen [total and free], APC resistance).

■ Lupus Anticoagulant / Antiphospholipid

Antibodies module

■ Coagulation Factor module I

(factors VIII, IX, XI and XII)

■ Coagulation Factor module II

(factors II, V, VII and X)

■ Von Willebrand Factor module (antigen, activity,

collagen binding, multimers, factor VIII)

■ D-Dimer module

■ Factor VIII inhibitor module

■ Thrombin Generation Test (TGT) module

■ Heparin Induced Thrombocytopenia (HIT) module

– immunological assays

■ Heparin Induced Thrombocytopenia (HIT) module

– functional assays

■ Unfractionated Heparin Monitoring (anti-Xa)

■ Low-molecular-weight Heparin Monitoring

(anti-Xa)

■ Homocysteine module

■ Factor XIII module

■ Fibrinolysis I module (plasminogen,

antiplasmin)

■ Fibrinolysis II module (t-PA [antigen], PAI-1

[antigen and activity])

■ Pre- and postanalytical electronic survey

■ Molecular Testing Modules (a variety of modules

to choose from – 800 ng lyophilized DNA supplied)

■ Interpretation of light transmission platelet

aggregometry. Offered as case-based, postanalytical

exercises, with customized scored reports.

■ Platelet dense granule deficiency by electron

microscopy (clinical samples provided on grids,

supplemented by images from other cases for

interpretation).

NASCOLANorth American Specialized Coagulation Laboratory Association