 |
 |
 |
 |
I'm glad Joseph Weber and Rob Chervenak took the time to voice most of the
problems I was envisioning when I read the post from Kris Weber. Now I
don't have to. I agree with with 90% of what they've said.
In a meeting of core facility managers at Lake Placid, I asked how many
managers allowed users to operate sorters. I would guess, by hand count,
that 10-15% allowed it. I was suprised there were that many. Most of the
people I know only allow select operators to touch their sorters. I've
always allowed "SKILLED" people to run the sorter as long as I knew they
were capable. But in most cases it takes less time to run a given user's
experiment and complete their project than it does to train them. We have
a large number of users (approx. 40-50 active in any given month) and
there's a fairly high turnover. It would be a HUGE waste of my time to
train people on the mechanics of sorting just to see them leave.
The problem is one of policy philosophy and there isn't a single, effective
policy for all facilities. I've worked hard to establish the facility here
as a research resource, not a coin-operated facility where people simply
have access to instrumentation. Our policy is based on user's needs and
abilities. I have three, very experienced operators that spend as much
time trouble-shooting sample preps as instrument and computer problems.
Most of our users learn some flow in the context of their own sample
preps while explaining their projects to the operators as their samples
are being run. This info. exchange helps everyone involved with the
facility - users and operators. Experienced, heavy users (rare) can run
their own experiments. But the vast majority don't even want to learn how
to analyze their own data! We do force them to UNDERSTAND their data but
we don't force them to learn our computer systems or the finer details of
flow in order to access the technology.
Getting back to Kris Weber's original post -> No matter how user-friendly
the sales reps. claim their sorters are, it's a big mistake to buy one
and think anyone in the lab can maintain, calibrate and operate it.
Budget for someone with experience.
tom d.
-- ============================================================================== Thomas Delohery | Internet: t-delohery@ski.mskcc.org Manager, Flow Cytometry Core Facility | Phone: (212) 639-8729 Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center | Fax: (212) 794-4019 ==============================================================================
|
|
|
|