June 3, 2004 - Five years ago, AACC Critical and Point-of-Care Testing Division launched a program to recognize outstanding achievements by a person primarily responsible for an institution’s POCT program.  This year the CPOCT Division is pleased to honor David Colard from Saint Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, MO. 

David oversees point of care testing at the 2003 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award winning hospital, Saint Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri. Saint Luke’s Hospital is a 580-bed tertiary care, not-for-profit hospital dedicated to medical research and education. Saint Luke's Health System includes nine hospitals and many physician practices in the Kansas City metropolitan area and surrounding region.

After first becoming involved with point of care testing in 1996, David has developed a passion for data management systems and connectivity. His most recent accomplishment was leading a multi-disciplinary team to improve POC glucose testing. After selecting the best instrumentation, he and the team upgraded all of the POC glucose meters, installed an interfaced data management system to transmit results to the LIS, and, most importantly, implemented the use of bar coded patient armbands to ensure proper patient identification. Patient identification and encounter errors are now well under 1%. As part of the project, David used his computer skills to personally generate over 1,300 bar coded operator badges, improving accuracy of operator identification and productivity. 

David was a guest speaker at the 1999 Hong Kong Society of Clinical Chemistry Annual Meeting, presenting on how to develop a quality point of care program. In 2000 he spoke to the Vietnamese Ministry of Health in Hanoi about improving critical care patients’ outcomes using point of care testing. He is doing an oral presentation at the 20th International Symposium on Critical Care and Point-of-Care Testing in Würzburg, Germany as well as poster presentation at the Annual AACC Meeting in Los Angeles. In an effort to influence the point of care industry, he has done presentations for sales meetings, participated in focus groups, performed beta testing, and hosted site visits by product managers and IT specialists.

This auspicious award, sponsored by the AACC CPOCT Division and funded by Lifescan, Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company, includes an honorarium and an elegant trophy. The award will be presented on Tuesday, July 27th at the CPOCT Division Business Meeting at 5:30 pm in the Westin Bonaventure Hotel.