4 minute read
App Reviews
Canada’s medical lab science community shines at
LABCON 2013
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From May 10 to 13, Canada’s medical laboratory professionals gathered in Victoria, British Columbia to attend LABCON 2013. As the Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science’s (CSMLS) national conference, the event was an opportunity for lab professionals from across the country to learn and network with their peers.
Considered the ‘must-attend’ event of the year, LABCON is the place to see and be seen in the medical lab industry. The conference brings together lab professionals, managers, directors, educators and students to share information and to learn about the latest innovations and trends in their field. Its three days of workshops, speakers and seminars make the conference one of Canada’s most prominent lab industry events.
This year was no exception. Held in Victoria for the first time, LABCON 2013 saw 538 attendees taking advantage of the conference’s 49 sessions on professional development and innovation. In addition to the traditional lecturebased presentations, this year also featured new presentation formats, including a panel presentation and roundtable discussion.
“The theme for the event was different,” says Michael Grant, team leader, communications at the CSMLS. “It was about bringing together different perspectives and trying to harness the collective wisdom of the community. We wanted to go beyond traditional lecture-based sessions where people are passive recipients of information, and enable a lot more collaboration and discussion within the sessions. That was a real focal point for this year.”
The conference also hosted a number of insightful plenary speakers, including a presentation by Dr. Martin Whale, executive medical director for the Vancouver Island Health authority on May 11. His presentation, titled “Leadership for Improvement: What Works for You?” looked at leadership for improvement and innovation in the healthcare sector and beyond – and what we need to better support innovation in Canada.
On May 12, the morning plenary session was Michelle Hoad on “Advocacy: Extreme Makeover Edition” outlining how, over the years, the CSMLS has reformulated its message to make sure it gets government attention. The session was an opportunity for attendees to learn about what skills were needed to build their own provincial advocacy message.
May 13 featured a plenary session from Christine Nielsen, who discussed “Generations 2.5: Managing Across Generations,” looking at key behavioral differences between the generations, and how to improve relationships across the divide.
Beyond the learning aspect of the event, the event helps build up Canada’s medical lab science community.
“The lab can be a stressful place at times,” says Grant. “An important aspect of LABCON is to get lab professionals out of the lab to refresh and refocus, so they can return to the lab armed with new knowledge, ideas and energy.”
Also new this year, LABCON ran a contest over social media. From Facebook comments and tweets using the hashtag #LABCON2013, a winner was selected to receive a free new iPad mini. For more conference highlights and pictures of the event, check out http://labcon.csmls.org. Next year’s conference, LABCON 2014, will be held on June 21 to 23 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
APP REVIEW
LabAssistant
Developed for the iPhone and iPad, LabAssistant is a reference tool for chemists and any scientist who works with chemicals in a lab. With information compiled by IDEX Health & Science, a multinational liquid subassembly and precision component manufacturer, the app has a listing of chemical materials on it that, when checked, will tell users if another material is chemically compatible with it, making it a potentially useful tool for scientists.
The problem with the app, however, is while it is very helpful, some design functions hold it back from being a truly invaluable app. The biggest flaw is the lack of a search functionality, making navigation a tedious task as the app requires users to manually scroll up and down to find what he/she is looking for. Furthermore, the list of materials leaves much to be desired as the listing that the app has is definitely not comprehensive.
LabAssistant has some really good ideas but poor execution both contentwise and functionality really hold this free app back.
ChemSpider
From Molecular Materials Informatics https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/chemspider/ id458878661?mt=8 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mmi.android. chemspider&hl=en
ChemSpider from Molecular Materials Informatics is a chemical database with information from Britain’s Royal Society of Chemistry. The app’s design functionality is simple but serviceable as it allows users to search chemical compounds by either name or structure. The most interesting feature of this app is the compound structure viewer as it allows users to view structures using the Molecular Materials’ diagram editor.
The app is pretty barebones but there’s little doubt that it can be useful for scientists and as it’s free there can be no complaints about the price point. The decision to make the app available for both iOS and Android devices also helps ChemSpider and as such it is recommended.
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