Why Your Lab QC Might Be Missing Critical Errors

Why Your Lab QC Might Be Missing Critical Errors

From Editors in Conversation by American Society for Microbiology

April 24, 2026 · 41 min · Episode 116

About this episode

This episode discusses the importance of accurate antibiotic susceptibility testing and the potential pitfalls of traditional quality control methods in laboratories.

Accurate AST results are the backbone of diagnostic stewardship, yet routine quality control (QC) might be missing subtle shifts that skew your hospital's annual antibiogram. By examining a real-world "silent failure" in daptomycin testing, we explore how lab-driven data is essential to the AMR crisis response and why the human eye—and traditional QC bugs—aren't always enough to catch technical drifts. This session breaks down the importance of LIS rules, alert fatigue, and the future of automated susceptibility testing. Guests: Laurel J. Glaser, M.D., Ph.D. Rebekah Dumm, Ph.D. D(ABMM) Links: Leveraging patient data to detect systematic shifts in daptomycin susceptibility testing associated with reduced prescribing This episode of Editors in Conversation is brought to you by the Journal of Clinical Microbiology and hosted by JCM Editor in Chief, Romney Humphries, Ph.D., D(ABMM) and Elitza (Elli) Theel, Ph.D., D(ABMM). Visit journals.asm.org/journal/jcm to read articles and/or submit a manuscript. Become an ASM member to receive up to 50% off publishing fees when you publish in JCM or any of the ASM journals. Sign up at asm.org/joinasm .

People in this episode

Hosts: Romney Humphries, Ph.D., D(ABMM), Elitza (Elli) Theel, Ph.D., D(ABMM)

Guests: Laurel J. Glaser, M.D., Ph.D., Rebekah Dumm, Ph.D. D(ABMM)

Topics covered

  • quality control
  • antibiotic susceptibility testing
  • antimicrobial resistance
  • laboratory data
  • diagnostic stewardship

Keywords

  • AST
  • quality control
  • antibiogram
  • daptomycin
  • AMR
  • laboratory information systems
  • automated testing

Sponsors

Journal of Clinical Microbiology

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: American Society for Microbiology

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