1st Proficiency Evaluation – Where do we go from here?
Presentation and discussion during ADA meeting
Sunday, June 24, Philadelphia Marriott Hotel Room 404: 7:30-9:30 pm
The first DASP proficiency evaluation conducted just prior to IDS 5 in Chennai has shown that there is wide variation in the sensitivity of GAD and IA-2 assays between labs, and that there is a lack of sensitivity in IAA measurement for many labs. To try to help labs learn from each other we plan to hold an informal meeting on the Sunday evening of the ADA meeting in Philadelphia. The aim of the meeting is to discuss the workshop results further and to try to identify differences, which might account for the better performance of some of the labs. Representatives of those labs which achieved the highest levels of sensitivity in IAA, GADA and IA-2A measurement have been invited to come and give a short description of their assay protocols, and to tell us why they think they work so well. We hope that this exchange will help others to attain the same high level of performance. The meeting will also give those of you who were not in Chennai the opportunity to hear a brief presentation of the results. The aim is to have a very practical meeting, which is likely to be of particular interest to the people who actually perform the assays. Investigators are strongly encouraged to bring their people to the meeting in Philadelphia
Provisional program:
	Introduction: the Diabetes Antibody Standardisation Program - P Mueller
	The 1st Proficiency Evaluation: Summary of results - P Bingley
Insulin autoantibody assays:
	Presentation of 2 protocols
	Discussion
GAD autoantibody assays:
	Protocol presentation
	Discussion
IA-2/ICA512 autoantibody assays:
	Protocol presentation
	Discussion
	Strategies for improving general implementation of the best assay methods