Partnerships & Outreach

​​​​APHL works to forge working relationships between public health laboratories and their partners in sentinel clinical laboratories and the first responder community. Both connections are vital to rapid and accurate detection of health threats. 

​APHL Partnerships​

The association collaborates with the:

• College of American Pathologists and CDC on the Laboratory Preparedness Exercise​ (LPX), a biannual assessment of pathogen detection distributed to approximately 1300 laboratories nationwide

• American Society for Microbiology and CDC on development of the Senti​nel Level Clinical Microbiology Laboratory Guidelines

• National Institute of Standards and Technology on developing standards and guidance to support biothreat field response mission capability

Outreach Resources

The resources below are intended to support public health laboratory outreach to sentinel clinical laboratories and first responders.​

​Sentinel Clinical Laboratories

• Sentinel Clinical Laboratory Definition​
  

• APHL Biothreat Identification Bench Cards​ & ​Poster​

• Biothreat ​Sentinel Laboratory Training Toolbox​
  

• Clinical Laboratory Preparedness and Response Guide
  

• APHL and ASM Interim Guidance: Addition of Bacillus cereus biovar anthracis as a Tier 1 Select Agent

• Sentinel Clinical Laboratory Certificates: Facility & Participant

• Guidelines for Safe Work Practices in Human and Animal Medical Diagnostic Laboratories​

​​First Responders

• ​Algorithm and Guidelines for Responding to an Incident Involving a Suspicious Non-Clinical Sample​
  

• Partners in Preparedness and Response: Connecting Laboratories and the First Responder Community
  

• The Need for a Quality Assurance Program for Kits and Devices Used in the Field to Screen for Hazardous Biological and Chemical Warfare Agents (Position Statement)
  

• Field Device Use by First Responders: Issues and Solutions

• Framework Checklist for Public Health Laboratory Outreach to First Responder Communities​
  

​Contact Us​

​For more infor​mation, contact Jill Sutton, specialist, Emergency Preparedness and Response at jill.sutton@aphl.org or at 240.485.2742.