BioRisk Association of the Philippines 2015, Inc. (BRAP2015)

Last Holy Monday, March 26, 2018, the seminar/writeshop on creating your own Lab Biosafety Manual was given by course lecturer and BRAP Founding President Dr. Miguel Martin N. Moreno II. The writeshop was held at the Crowne Plaza Galleria, Quezon City. This PAMET-led event in collaboration with BRAP was attended by 116 participants.

The course objectives were:

1. to understand common terminology and the processes used to develop biosafety laboratory manual, including the difference between policies, standards, guidelines, and standard operating procedures (SOP’s); and
2. to assure the participants that the SOP’s they will develop will be self-evaluated and further validated later so that the same task may be completed by different people coming up with the same result and that the laboratory manual they will create will include biosafety, biosecurity and biorisk management en toto tailored for their institution.

Dr. Moreno discussed the following topics: (a) plagiarism, (b) review of the four biosafety principles, (c) review of the five biosecurity elements, (d) review of biorisk management, (e) understanding documents in biosafety manual, (f) zeroing on SOPs, (g) planning biosafety manual, (h) the components of biosafety manual, biosecurity as part of the biosafety manual, (i) contents of the biosafety manual, (j) archiving systems, retention, updates, and versions, (k) appendices and indices, (l) referencing, major citations for the reference list, and introduction to the references used, and (m) the process of benchmarking from best manuals worldwide.

A BRAP ad hoc committee for the development of the Lab Biosafety Manual and Post-workshop assignments will be sponsoring for FREE the first 10 manuals submitted for accreditation from the NCR writeshop participants after a 2-month writing period (deadline: May 26, 2018).

Dr. Moreno also mentioned that BRAP members who completed the writeshop with Pre- and Post writeshop quizzes will be sent (upon request) BRAP Biosafety Credentialing and Comptency certificates for the session.

Mr. Ronnie Puno, PAMET National President, gave the opening remarks, while Dr. Leila Lany Florento, PAMET Former President, graciously introduced the day’s speaker. Both attended the writeshop throughout the end. BRAP Asst. Secretary Mr. Ariel Aquino came halfway through the lecture and helped close the day’s event.

(L–R) PAMET National President Mr. Ronaldo Puno (RMT, MBA-H), Speaker and BRAP President Dr. Miguel Martin Moreno (MD, CBP, CIFBA) and Dr. Leila Lany Florento (PhD)

Last March 6, 2018, Mr. Billexter S. Bonifacio gave a lecture about Biosafety and Infection Prevention and Control in Laboratory Setting and Specimen Collection as part of the Philippine Hospital Infection Control Nurses Association (PHICNA) Infection Control Basic Competency Training Course (BCTC) held at The Lung Center of the Philippines. More than 170 participants comprised of infection control nurses, chief of hospitals and DOH staff members attended the BCTC of PHICNA.

Mr. Bonifacio is an active member of the BioRisk Association of the Philippines and a certified biorisk management professional by the International Federation of Biosafety Associations (IFBA). He is also the department manager of the infection control service
of St.Luke’s Medical Center – Quezon city. (BRAP Feature Article March 2018)

The BRAP Biosafety Credentialing and Competency Program was patterned after the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) Competency Guidelines. Here BRAP presents a program that aims to improve and uplift the culture of safety and security in our countries laboratories. We need to continue to see exposures to various pathogens and fatalities.  It is with this premise that biosafety credentialing and competencies become an important component of any biosafety and biosecurity program and an essential means to build the culture of safety and security.  These competency guidelines outline the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary for public health laboratory (PHL) professionals to deliver the core services of PHLs efficiently and effectively. This is the backbone of the BRAP Biosafety Credentialing & Competency Program.

As part of a 2-year workforce project sponsored in 2012 by CDC and APHL, competencies for 15 domain areas were developed by experts representing state and local PHLs, clinical laboratories, academic institutions, laboratory professional organizations, CDC, and APHL. The competencies were developed and reviewed by approximately 170 subject matter experts with diverse backgrounds and experiences in laboratory science and public health. The guidelines comprise general, cross-cutting, and specialized domain areas and are divided into four levels of proficiency: beginner, competent, proficient, and expert.

The 15 domain areas are (1) quality management system, (2) ethics, (3) management and leadership, (4) communication, (5) security, (6) emergency management and response, (7) workforce training, (8) general laboratory practice, (9) safety, (10) surveillance, (11) informatics, (12) microbiology, (13) chemistry, (14) bioinformatics, and (15) research. These competency guidelines were targeted to laboratorians working in PHLs, defined as governmental public health, environmental, and agricultural laboratories that provide analytic biological and/or chemical testing and testing-related services that protect human populations against infectious diseases, foodborne and waterborne diseases, environmental hazards, treatable hereditary disorders, and natural and man-made public health emergencies. The competencies support certain PHL workforce needs such as identifying job responsibilities, assessing individual performance, and providing a guiding framework for producing education and training programs. Although these competencies were developed specifically for the PHL community, this does not preclude their broader application to other professionals in a variety of different work settings. The complete program of CDC-APHL is found in the Supplemental Issue of the CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report dated May 15, 2015. It may be downloaded here.

BRAP will launch its Biosafety Credentialing and Competency Program on March 26, 2018, during the 1st PAMET-BRAP CPD for 2018 at the Crowne Plaza Galleria, Ortigas Center, Quezon City.