Christopher Gilpin, PhD, MPH
About Christopher Gilpin, PhD, MPH
Dr Christopher Gilpin has over twenty years experience as a Microbiology Laboratory Scientist managing diagnostic laboratories in Australia and the Middle-East. Chris completed studies in England for his doctorate in the molecular diagnosis and epidemiology of tuberculosis and was formerly Head of the TB Supranational Reference Laboratory in Brisbane, Australia. He has extensive experience in TB laboratory capacity strengthening and training in Africa, Asia and in the Pacific Islands. Chris holds a master of Public Health degree focused on tuberculosis and migration. He relocated to Geneva, Switzerland in 2007 to work as the Global Laboratory Manager for the International Organization for Migration and is currently employed by the World Health Organization as a Scientist in TB Diagnostics and Laboratory Strengthening Unit (TBL) of the StopTB Department. Chris is part of the team at WHO leading the roll-out of recently endorsed Xpert MTB/RIF assay.
Role(s) / Profession(s)
- Laboratory Professional
- Researcher
Organization
- World Health Organization - WHO
Language(s)
Recent Contributions
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Christopher Gilpin, PhD, MPH replied to "Expert Panel Apr. 2-6: Implementing Quality Management Systems to Strengthen Laboratory Capacity" in the MDR-TB Treatment & Prevention community.
I would like to solicit some feedback from National TB Reference Laboratories (NRLs) on what they percieve are the major challenges with implementing a quality management system towards laboratory accreditation. Is it concerns regarding where to start? Are human resources a problem? Are there concerns that this will cost too much? Is more advocacy needed among National TB Programme mangers to highlight the essential importance of quality systems? The checklists incorporated into the GLI tool ...
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Christopher Gilpin, PhD, MPH replied to "Expert Panel Apr. 2-6: Implementing Quality Management Systems to Strengthen Laboratory Capacity" in the MDR-TB Treatment & Prevention community.
On behalf of Ralph Timperi, APHL Hi Chris, I am not certain if I will be able to join in (time zone?), but I would like to pass on a few thoughts and happy to discuss or respond on Email. In addition to the SLMTA/SLIPTA tools, it is important to consider and build in the following to rollout plans. - as the number of labs in the program increases HR support needs increase dramatically- mentors ...
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Christopher Gilpin, PhD, MPH replied to "Expert Panel Apr. 2-6: Implementing Quality Management Systems to Strengthen Laboratory Capacity" in the MDR-TB Treatment & Prevention community.
The GLI stepwise process towards accreditation is a resource which can be used by all National TB Reference Laboratories. This tool brings together many of the tools and resources which have been developed by GLI partners together in on interactive online tool. This tool can help guide the implementation of a quality management system (QMS) laboratories starting out on the road towards accreditation as well as being useful to laboratories who have a QMS in ...
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Christopher Gilpin, PhD, MPH replied to "Expert Panel May 9-20: Challenges in Rolling-out the Xpert MTB/RIF Diagnostic Test in Resource-Limited Settings" in the MDR-TB Treatment & Prevention community.
Each Xpert MTB/RIF contains the following internal controls: The sample processing control (SPC) contains non-infectious spores in the form of a dry spore cake that is included in each cartridge to verify adequate processing of MTB. • Verifies that lysis of MTB has occurred if the organisms are present • Verifies the specimen processing is adequate. • Detects specimen associated inhibition of the real-time PCR assay. • SPC should be positive in a negative sample ...
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Christopher Gilpin, PhD, MPH replied to "Expert Panel May 9-20: Challenges in Rolling-out the Xpert MTB/RIF Diagnostic Test in Resource-Limited Settings" in the MDR-TB Treatment & Prevention community.
When using liquid culture, with the expectation that time-to-detection will be significantly reduced, it is also imperative that a rapid method of species identification be used. Recommendations for speciation of mycobacterial isolates can be found at http://www.who.int/tb/laboratory/use_of_liquid_tb_culture_summary_report.pdf
