Through standards development, CLSI sees its mission realized in practice. In order to better serve the volunteers that create these needed standards, and deliver them to users with greater speed, we have taken steps to improve the standards development process to benefit all involved.
Through this new process, we will unlock parallel efficiencies between process and technical oversight, so we can better prioritize and streamline standards development.
Unified Process Oversight
Instead of multiple Consensus Committees, we will have a single Consensus Council to oversee process-driven aspects for all developed standards. This allows us to prioritize across specialty areas and ensure consensus process requirements are upheld.
Creation of Expert Panels
Expert Panels support the technical quality of documents developed in their specialty area. The Consensus Council and document development committees can look to these experts for input on a standard’s technical accuracy.
One Voting Period
We have consolidated voting to a single period to create greater efficiency. At this time, CLSI Delegates and Document Development Committees are invited to vote on the standard.
More Convenient Collaboration
In addition to online collaboration forums like Workspace, CLSI has developed tools to aid volunteers, including templates, checklists, writer’s instructions, and more.
Now CLSI can speed time to knowledge by getting meaningful standards into practice, faster. The needs of our users evolve every day—and so must our standards to remain timely and relevant.
Optimizes Volunteer Time and Talents
Volunteers can focus their contributions where they will make the greatest impact—in areas well aligned with their individual expertise and strengths.
Improves Timeliness and Efficiency
By flattening review processes and adding online tools for volunteer collaboration, we will shorten total development time to help ensure published standards meet timely needs.
Elevates Standards Quality
With one body providing process-driven oversight of all CLSI-developed documents, we can align standard consistency and quality across each of our specialty areas.
Supports and Sustains CLSI’s Mission
This evolved structure enables CLSI to prioritize precious resources to those standards most needed by the market.
The evolved standards development structure is scheduled for full implementation by January 1, 2016.
By delineating volunteer responsibilities between technical and process oversight, we unlock parallel efficiencies to streamline document creation. This empowers our volunteers to accomplish even more with less time demands.
The Consensus Council, composed of approximately 10 CLSI-selected member volunteers, will provide holistic, process-focused oversight of standards developed across specialty areas. The Consensus Council will prioritize these development projects based on greatest market need, and ensure they uphold consensus requirements.
Expert Panel members will provide discipline-specific expertise as needed to ensure that the standards CLSI develops are of the highest technical and scientific quality. They will also help fill the pipeline for timely document development by proposing new standards to champion through the process.
The new structure flattens operational processes to drive efficiency and streamline document review cycles for these document development groups. These modifications, and the addition of helpful collaboration tools, will help us achieve consensus in a shorter timeframe, so committees can get their valuable documents in the hands of the users that need them, faster.
As a Consensus Council member, you will play a key role in fostering collaboration between specialty areas to properly prioritize projects across disciplines and fast track documents with the greatest market impact.
Key Responsibilities:
Expert Panels exist for the following technical areas: Automation and Informatics, Clinical Chemistry and Toxicology, Evaluation Protocols, Hematology and Immunology and Ligand Assay. Microbiology, Molecular Methods, Newborn Screening, Point-of-Care Testing, Quality Management Systems and General Practices.
Key Responsibilities:
If you are a current volunteer and wondering how your role will evolve, check out this helpful Q&A.
If you’d like to learn more about the meaningful changes made to step up standards development, click here.