Graham
The accepted unit for area here in the UK is 'Wales' (as in 'Australia covers an area XX the size of Wales').
Attempts to agree a sub-unit for mass (as in 'Sydney Harbour Bridge weighs about as much as XX whales') have so far failed.
:)
Mr Paul Waller, MSc CSci FIBMS
Principal Lecturer & Course Director (MSc Biomedical Science),
School of Life Sciences
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-----Original Message-----
From: Clinical biochemistry discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Graham Jones
Sent: 13 June 2011 13:23
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: FW: Berlin Blog on a Friday - Warning - Australian slant
Regarding unusual units I was surprised to see a few years ago a newspaper explain the weight of a building relative to the weight Sydney Harbour Bridge (Sydney Morning Herald - 13.25 x Bridge weight).
The "SydHarb" is a well accepted universal unit covering area (eg fractions or multiples of the area of Sydney Harbour) as well as volume, depth, height and length (the last two referring to the bridge).
Perhaps there is a role for this universal unit in pathology as well!
Graham
Graham Jones
Staff Specialist in Chemical Pathology
St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney
Ph: (02) 8382-9160
Fax: (02) 8382-2489
>>> "Richard Jones [Pathology]" <[log in to unmask]> 06/10/11 11:27 PM >>>
Dear ACB Brain(s),
Tim's pragmatism of 'buckets per swimming pool' worked well in the world where the request/report cycle involved one lab and one client group. However the world has moved on with lab data being combined in large databases for GP clinical records, cancer registries, chemotherapy systems, GP2GP transfers etc etc. In this world users of the data who are not the requesters will need to understand not just units of measurement and reference range differences but also whether it is suitable to assume its OK to combine data when from different and unknown labs. This environment requires for patient safety reasons a single code linked to an analyte, its unit of measurement, preferably an agreed reference range and a code to indicate suitability to assume data combination when information from a number of different labs is being considered in patient care. All this is being developed through a number of routes with governance for the whole process being provided by the National Laboratory Medicine Catalogue Governance Board hosted by RCPathology. More on codes for data combination can be found at www.ychi.leeds.ac.uk/pmipunits
As an example from data gathered from a GP system receiving results from several labs this is some of the variance in unit representation for HbA1c.
ReadCodeExpansion UoM
HbA1c level (DCCT aligned) %
HbA1c level (DCCT aligned) % total Hb
HbA1c levl - IFCC standardised mmol/mmHb
HbA1c levl - IFCC standardised mmol/mol
Aren't we supposed to be scientists and didn't we sign up to SI units? We weren't aware Hb was measured in millimetres!
It seems critical that the pathology professions agree a robust and monitored approach to secure these developments - especially in an era when there is a direction towards patients accessing their laboratory data. We cannot expect patients to understand our variations!
Regards
Concerned Consultants of Brighton and Leeds
Dr Gifford Batstone MBBS, BSc, MSc, FRCPath
Dr Rick Jones MA, DM, FRCPath
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