Michael Lee Astion, MD, PhD

Dr. Astion is a clinical pathologist who is Division Chief of Laboratory Medicine at Seattle Childrens Hospital. For almost two decades he worked at the University of Washington, Department of Laboratory Medicine where he was a Professor and Director of Reference Laboratory Services and Associate Director of the Clinical Immunology Laboratory. His career is divided between clinical service, teaching, clinical service, and research and development. He has authored more than 20 software titles, 35 peer-reviewed papers, and 40 editorials. His software, which has been translated into several languages, includes both laboratory tutorials and competency assessment exams, and these materials are now used by more than 40,000 clinical laboratory workers annually in 1500 labs as part of the Medical Training Solutions laboratory training library. He is the editor-in-chief of Patient Safety Focus, which appears quarterly within AACCs Clinical Laboratory News. He is currently working actively, through grants and intellectual property held by the University of Washington, with the insurance industry in the United States to create utilization management rules for clinical laboratory testing. Dr. Astion is a frequent speaker at professional meetings, where he lectures on issues related to continuous performance improvement; laboratory errors and patient safety;laboratory test utilization; test interpretation; laboratory economics and outreach; and competency assessment. His previous awards include: American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science Theriot Award for Excellence in Media, which he received twice for his educational software. AACC Annual Award for Outstanding Contributions to Patient Safety (2006) AACC Annual Award for Contributions to Management Science (2007) Canadian Society of Clinical Chemistry Traveling Lectureship (2007)A frequent winner of the AACC outstanding speaker award, Dr. Astion has been active in the AACC, including as a symposium organizer for the 2005 Annual Meeting Organizing Committee and as a previous head of the Patient Safety Taskforce.