2023 Call for Committee Volunteers
Dear Colleague:
The Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy has several committees to help FACT achieve its vision of being the premiere organization setting standards and awarding accreditation to programs in the evolving field of cellular therapy.
Considering your experience and important involvement with the FACT inspection and accreditation process, we invite you to review the charges for the committees with current vacancies and either nominate yourself or a colleague to serve as a committee member. Active inspectors receive priority consideration. All volunteers must be at a FACT-accredited organization unless otherwise specified.
Learn more about current committee descriptions, desired expertise, and expectations: FACT Committee Opportunities.
Please submit your interest in serving as a committee member by completing the Committee Volunteer Form by April 7, 2023.
Standards Committees
• Hematopoietic Cell Therapy Committee
• Immune Effector Cell Standards Committee
• Cord Blood Standards and Common Standards*
*Volunteers for Cord Blood Standards and Common Standards Committees will be solicited at the initiation of the standards development process for the next editions of those publications.
Accreditation Committees
• Cellular Therapy Accreditation Committee
• Cord Blood Accreditation Committee
Special Committees and Task Forces
• Education Committee
• Inspector Development Committee
• Quality Management Committee
• FACT-CIBMTR Data Audit Committee
• Immune Effector Cell Task Force
• Clinical Outcomes Improvement Committee
• Regenerative Medicine Task Force
• Technology Committee
The contributions of our volunteer FACT Inspectors and committee members have been invaluable and have resulted in the tremendous success of FACT. Thank you for your dedication and support of this important effort to ensure quality patient care, improve treatment outcomes, and foster continued development in the field of cellular therapy.
Sincerely,
Catherine Bollard, MD
FACT President
Linda Miller, MPA
Chief Executive Officer
FACT Professional Relations Committee Provides a Forum for Sharing Experiences in Challenging Year
The cellular therapy community is well known for its spirit of collaboration. One testament to the teamwork enjoyed by the field is the FACT Professional Relations Committee. One of the purposes of this committee is to enhance communications with relevant organizations in the field. This year, 13 organizations are members, and each has nominated a representative to meet at least quarterly to discuss any issues that have captured its attention, new initiatives that might be of interest to other organizations, and requests for input or participation.
Catherine Bollard, MD, inaugural committee chair and Director for the Center for Cancer and Immunology at the Children’s National Medical Center, recently transitioned committee leadership after many years of service to Bruce Levine, PhD, Professor in Cancer Gene Therapy at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Levine has called special meetings throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to allow organizations to share ideas, provide updates to processes, and ask questions of each other. The benefits of these discussions were the ability to seek advice and learn from each other, communicate changes impacting cellular therapy programs to a wider audience through multiple channels, and establish some consistency among processes. Topics included, among others, training on caring for transplant patients with COVID-19, cryopreservation of unrelated allogeneic products, virtual meetings, and remote inspections.
FACT thanks the following organizations for their participation on the committee and leadership during this challenging year:
- AABB
- American Association for Tissue Banking (AATB)
- American Society for Apheresis (ASFA)
- American Society for Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT)
- American Society for Histocompatibility & Immunogenetics (ASHI)
- American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy (ASTCT)
- College of American Pathologists (CAP)
- Cord Blood Association (CBA)
- International Society Cell & Gene Therapy (ISCT)
- National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP)
- Standards Coordinating Body (SCB)
- World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA)
New Volunteer Committee Members
Annually, FACT distributes a Call for Volunteers to solicit new committee members for its Standing and Special Committees.
The FACT Board of Director strives to have a 20% turnover each year in committee membership to provide new opportunities for those interested in becoming more involved with FACT as well as to interject fresh and innovative perspectives in working groups.
It is always moving to see the numbers of volunteers willing to devote their personal time in light of increasingly busy schedules. Although there are typically not enough positions available to place all volunteers on a committee, we retain the information of volunteers to appoint to committees in subsequent years.
Following are the FACT Committees that had vacancies this year and their new members:
Education Committee
Purpose: To develop education and training programs for inspectors and for personnel at applicant and accredited facilities to promote knowledge and understanding of current standards, create awareness of commonly cited deficiencies, and promote quality in cellular therapy.
- Nicole Acqui, MD
- Alex Babic, MD, PhD
- Guy Klamer, PhD
- Yogesh Jethava, MBBS
- Premal Lulla, MD
- Joseph Lynch, MD
- Huy Pham, MD, MPH
- Priti Tewari, MD
Quality Management Committee
Purpose: Develop and administer programs that maintain high quality in FACT’s organizational operations and in accredited programs.
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- Sylvia Dulan, RN, MSN, MBA, PMP –
- Kris Michael Mahadeo, MD, MPH
- Omotayo Fasan, MBBS, MRCP
- Krista Holcomb
FACT-CIBMTR Data Audit Committee
Purpose: Coordinate the evaluation of transplant center data audits performed by FACT and CIBMTR.
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- Jaskiran Kaur, CQA(ASQ)
- Linh Sellers, CCRP
- Hemant Murthy, MD
Technology Committee
Purpose: Enhance, refine, streamline, and improve the efficiency of the accreditation process and educational programs through the continued improvement of Technology and FACT’s online presence.
-
- Leon Su, MBA, FCAP, FASCP
- Shanlong Jian, BS, MS
- Federerico Rodriguez Quezada BSMT, SBB(ASCP)
The contributions of our volunteer committee members has been invaluable and has resulted in the tremendous success of FACT. Thank you to all our volunteers for your dedication and support of FACT to ensure quality patient care, improve treatment outcomes, and foster continue development in the field of cellular therapy.
Call for FACT Volunteers
Dear FACT Colleague:
The Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy has several committees to help FACT achieve its vision of being the premiere organization setting standards and awarding accreditation to programs in the evolving field of cellular therapy.
In light of your experience and important involvement with the FACT inspection and accreditation process, we invite you to review the charges for the committees with current vacancies and either nominate yourself or a colleague to serve as a committee member.
Education Committee
Purpose: To develop education and training programs for inspectors and for personnel at applicant and accredited facilities to promote knowledge and understanding of current standards, create awareness of commonly cited deficiencies, and promote quality in cellular therapy.
Responsibilities:
– Attend monthly one-hour teleconference
– Develop content for workshop and webinar presentations
– Assess effectiveness of training events and recommend improvements
– Serve as a FACT workshop presenter at various meetings
– Develop content for inspector continuing education
Quality Management Committee
Purpose: Develop and administer programs that maintain high quality in FACT’s organizational operations and in accredited programs.
Responsibilities:
– Attend monthly one-hour teleconference
– Maintain and update the FACT Quality Management Handbook
– Offer a comprehensive schedule of webinars related to quality management activities
– Develop content for quality “boot camps”
– Develop quality metrics for gauging the performance of the FACT inspection and accreditation process, including effectiveness, efficiency, and customer satisfaction
FACT-CIBMTR Data Audit Committee
Purpose: Coordinate the evaluation of transplant center data audits performed by FACT and CIBMTR.
Responsibilities:
– Attend monthly one-hour teleconference
– Develop mechanisms by which CIBMTR and FACT can coordinate audits and inspections of data management processes within transplant centers
– Develop a collaborative approach to evaluate the results of FACT inspections with CIBMTR’s data audit findings to ensure a coordinated response to the transplant center
– Participate in the joint FACT-CIBMTR data review process by assessing programs’ progress on implementing corrective action plans
– Develop education and provide assistance to programs throughout the accreditation cycle to achieve quality improvement in data management
Technology Committee
Purpose: Enhance, refine, streamline, and improve the efficiency of the accreditation process and educational programs through the continued improvement of technology and FACT’s online presence.
Responsibilities:
– Attend quarterly one-hour teleconference
– Suggest ideas to enhance user’s experience using the Accreditation Portal
– Evaluate and review new portal features
– Evaluate new technologies to improve business processes
– Interface with other committees to identify data needs to develop and publish reports
– Evaluate a mobile app option for FACT’s resources such as Standards, announcements, newsletter, and education
Please submit your interest in serving as a committee member along with a description of your qualifications to Linda Miller at lmiller1@unmc.edu by March 1, 2019.
The contributions of our volunteer FACT inspectors and committee members have been invaluable and have resulted in the tremendous success of FACT. Thank you for your dedication and support of this important effort to ensure quality patient care, improve treatment outcomes, and foster continue development in the field of cellular therapy.
Sincerely,
Dennis Gastineau, MD
President
Linda Miller, MPA
Chief Executive Officer
