Principles of Clinical Toxicology Certificate Program

This certificate program is completed online, at your own pace, within ADLM’s learning platform. It must be completed within one year of the purchase date.

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

This program was developed for laboratory professionals at all levels who work in labs that perform toxicology testing, as well as other health care professionals with an interest in this specialty. The content will provide participants with a basic background in clinical toxicology, cover most screening procedures, illustrate best practices, and show how toxicology testing shapes diagnosis and treatment decisions. This program was developed in cooperation with the Therapeutic Drug Management and Toxicology Division.

TARGET AUDIENCE

Lab Supervisors, Lab Directors (and/or assistant directors), Lab Managers (supervisory and/or non-supervisory), Toxicologists

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Review fundamental clinical toxicology principles, identify common acute toxic exposures and associated laboratory findings, and highlight drug overdose findings.
• Explain the principles of common immunoassays for urine drug testing and describe how to validate an immunoassay that screens for drugs of abuse. List advantages and disadvantages of using immunoassays for urine drug testing. Explain the utility of immunoassay testing in pain management settings and describe the testing used in the Medication-Assisted Treatment program. List the common reasons for false positive and false negative results. Describe the metabolic pathways for common pain medications. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of point-of-care testing for pain management drugs.
• Describe the basic uses and limitations of a variety of specimen types used in toxicology testing such as urine, blood, hair, oral fluid, sweat, and meconium. Review the conditions for specimen integrity when testing urine samples and discuss hot topics in alternative matrices.
• Review the separation technologies used in clinical labs and the mathematical theories behind chromatography. Describe the common types of chromatography used in the toxicology laboratory and the principles behind GC/HPLC. Explain the considerations for sample preparation, and principles for quantitation of a separation.

COURSES & FACULTY

This program is composed of four courses, listed below. Each course can be completed online in approximately 1-2 hours, and contains a lectures, readings, resources, and a quiz.

1. Introduction to Clinical Toxicology
   Jill Warrington, MD, PhD, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT
   Kamisha Johnson-Davis, PhD, DABCC, University of Utah/ARUP Laboratories, Salt Lake City, UT
2. Immunoassays to Screen for Drugs of Abuse
   Stacy E.F. Melanson, MD, PhD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA
   He Sarina Yang, PhD, DABCC, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY
3. Specimens for Toxicology Testing
   Andrea Terrell, PhD, DABCC, Phoenix Laboratories LLC, Indianapolis, IN
   Reviewer: Joshua Akin, MAS, MLS, UC San Diego Health System, San Diego, CA
4. Chromatography Basics for Toxicology Testing
   James Ritchie, PhD, DABCC, FADLM, Emory University, Atlanta, GA
   Reviewer: Jaime Noguez, PhD, DABCC, Case Western University, Cleveland, OH

DISCLOSURES

The Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine (formerly AACC) is dedicated to ensuring balance, independence, objectivity, and scientific rigor in all educational activities. All participating planning committee members and faculty are required to disclose to the program audience any financial relationships related to the subject matter of this program. Disclosure information is reviewed in advance in order to manage and resolve any possible conflicts of interest. The intent of this disclosure is to provide participants with information on which they can make their own judgments.

The following planners and faculty reported relevant financial relationship(s), and have indicated that those relationships would not impact the content of the activity:

• Jill Warrington, MD, PhD
  Stocks/Bonds: Aspenti Health
• Andrea Terrell, PhD, DABCC
  Salary/Consulting fees: AIT Laboratories

The following planners and faculty reported no relevant financial relationships:

• Kamisha Johnson-Davis, PhD, DABCC
• Stacy E.F. Melanson, MD, PhD
• He Sarina Yang, PhD, DABCC
• Joshua Akin, MAS, MLS
• James Ritchie, PhD, FADLM, DABCC
• Jaime Noguez, PhD, DABCC

CONTENT VALIDITY

All recommendations involving clinical medicine are based on evidence accepted within the profession of medicine as adequate justification for their indications and contraindications in the care of patients; AND/OR all scientific research referred to or reported in support or justification of a patient care recommendation conforms to generally accepted standards of experimental design, data collection, and analysis.

ACCREDITATION STATEMENT

This activity is approved for 10.0 ACCENT^® continuing education credits. Activity ID #4157. This activity was planned in accordance with ACCENT Standards and Policies.

SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION STATEMENT

Verification of Participation certificates are provided to registered participants based on completion of the activity, in its entirety, and the activity evaluation. The evaluation link will be emailed to the participants after all work within ADLM’s learning platform is complete. For questions regarding continuing education, please email [email protected].

Program Updated: 2020