Yesterday, March 9, 2022, was an exciting day for the KHSC Clinical Laboratories. It was a really proud moment for us to receive TWO of the annual KHSC TEAM AWARDS at the ceremony that took place. There were 11 teams and 211 individuals who were nominated - for either the Care, Knowledge or Leadership awards. The Clinical Laboratories were the recipients of the awards for CARE and LEADERSHIP. Hearty congratulations to the HISTOLOGY and GENETICS Laboratory staff who received the CARE Award and also to the INFECTIOUS DISEASES SEQUENCING (IDS) Laboratory staff who received the LEADERSHIP Award! These are amazing achievements in very challenging times and reflect our ability to work together effectively and efficiently to accomplish our singular goal of providing outstanding care, always! The recognition from our hospital peers that led to these awards is a testament to the value of high quality laboratory medicine and impact to direct patient care and also to the health of the population we serve in our community.
For your information, we provide a brief description of each of the submissions:
CARE
Cancer Care - Precision Medicine - Rapid Implementation of “Waves” of New Biomarkers
Over the past year, Ontario Health - Cancer Care Ontario (OH/CCO) has significantly increased the number of solid tumours for which testing and interpretation of results in the clinical laboratory is required. These test results guide very important treatment and clinical management decisions for cancer patients. In 2021, OH/CCO rapidly expanded the menu of required tests to include a much broader group of tumour types, and to include a much more complex set of biomarkers for interrogation. KHSC Clinical Laboratories accepted the challenge of the new testing in order to ensure that patients were able to receive the highest standard of care. Together, the Pathology and the Genetics laboratory teams investigated each new test, established the number of tumours likely to be sent for testing and the optimal mode of testing for these new biomarkers. The teams developed efficient algorithms that supported the addition of all of the tests rapidly and with minimal disruption to existing work flows. The Pathology and Genetics teams worked closely to complete the technical validation of the required tests. Go-live for the new testing occurred in three phases, starting in June, August and October 2021. With each “wave”, the list of tests was expanded and the workload and complexity expanded as well.
At the same time, cancer patients were returning in large numbers to hospitals for biopsies and surgeries that had been delayed by the pandemic. The massive influx of new cases threatened to overwhelm the laboratory services. However, both Pathology and Genetics laboratory teams were relentless and efficient at developing new methods to handle the vastly increased workload and complexity of testing with relatively few additional resources. The diligent work of these two laboratory teams has placed KHSC in the top tier of Ontario and Canadian clinical laboratories.
LEADERSHIP
The Infectious Diseases Sequencing (IDS) Laboratory
The arrival of the COVID-19 Alpha strain made it clear that neither Canada nor Ontario had a surveillance systems in place to detect and quickly act on new Variants of Concern (VOC) viruses, which are associated with increased morbidity, mortality and transmission. In February 2021, Ontario Health called for the creation of a provincial network of genomics surveillance laboratories that could provide genomic data to help track the emergence and dissemination of COVID-19 VOCs in Ontario.
The KHSC Infectious Diseases Sequencing (IDS) Laboratory team was selected (one of only five in Ontario) and awarded over $3,000,000 to provide genomic surveillance data to the community. Since its inception in April 2021, this new laboratory has played a central role in providing timely genomics data for provincial surveillance and outbreak investigations at KHSC and public health units around the province. It has worked closely with health units in eastern Ontario to monitor community outbreaks and reinfections, and it now provides genomic data for the tracking of COVID-19 for all of eastern Ontario. In November 2021, the KHSC IDS Laboratory was the first in Ontario to identify a case of community transmission of the Omicron VOC. That allowed our local public health unit to quickly identify the exact locations in Kingston of super-spreader events. Over the last 8 months, KHSC has transformed from having no footprint in the field of infectious disease genomics to becoming a center of excellence in infectious disease sequencing in the province of Ontario. The directors and laboratory scientist involved with the IDS Laboratory are now members on several provincial leadership committees. The KHSC Clinical Laboratories’ results are shared at the Ontario Science Table regularly, and a weekly summary is shared with the Office of the Premier. The IDS Laboratory has clearly established itself as a leader in the field of infectious disease genomics, has secured millions of dollars in funding and continues to play a major role in how Kingston and the Province of Ontario monitor the spread of infectious diseases.