Leadership and quality management measurement models: an empirical study.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore, confirm and verify leadership with regards to quality management measurement models. This research focused on identifying individual staff members' leadership attributes at the Thai National Institute of Health in relation to quality management.

Design/methodology/approach: The research instrument used in this study was a modified questionnaire on self-leadership and quality management that was distributed to the institute's staff.

Factors affecting quality management at the Thai national institute of health.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to confirm and examine organization-related factors that could affect quality management at the Thai national reference laboratory known as National Institute of Health.

Design/methodology/approach: The authors invited 340 laboratory staff members to complete a questionnaire that enquired about their skills, opinions, perceptions, leadership, work environment, organizational culture and organizational commitment in relation to quality management. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and multiple linear regression were used to analyze the data.

Public health laboratory quality management in a developing country.

Purpose: The article aims to give an overview of the system of public health laboratory quality management in Thailand and to produce a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis that is relevant to public health laboratories in the country.

Design/methodology/approach: The systems for managing laboratory quality that are currently employed were described in the first component. The second component was a SWOT analysis, which used the opinions of laboratory professionals to identify any areas that could be improved to meet quality management systems.

External quality assessment program on CD4+ T-lymphocyte counts for persons with HIV/AIDS in Thailand: history and accomplishments.

A CD4 count External Quality Assessment (EQA) program is important for the clinical monitoring of persons infected with HIV/AIDS. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the CD4 EQA performance program of the flow cytometer laboratories that perform routine CD4 counts for these patients in Thailand. Stabilized whole blood samples were sent to participating laboratories to determine the percentage and absolute counts of CD4+ T-lymphocytes using their routine procedures.

Factors associated with tuberculosis treatment default among HIV-infected tuberculosis patients in Thailand.

Ensuring completion of tuberculosis (TB) treatment remains a major public health problem. In HIV-infected patients, TB is the most common severe opportunistic infection. Few studies have evaluated risk factors for TB treatment default in HIV-infected patients.

Performance of the BACTEC MGIT 960 compared with solid media for detection of Mycobacterium in Bangkok, Thailand.

Controlled trials have demonstrated that liquid media culture (LMC) is superior to solid media culture for diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), but there is limited evidence about its performance in resource-limited settings. We evaluated the performance of LMC in a demonstration project in Bangkok, Thailand. Sputum specimens from persons with suspected or clinically diagnosed tuberculosis were inoculated in parallel on solid (Lowenstein-Jensen [LJ]) and liquid (mycobacterial growth indicator tube [MGIT 960]) media.

Screening HIV-infected women for cervical cancer in Thailand: findings from a demonstration project.

Objectives: Although cervical cancer is an AIDS-defining illness, few HIV-infected women are routinely screened for cervical cancer in Thailand. We screened HIV-infected women for cervical cancer as a component of HIV care and assessed high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) and cervical cancer prevalence.

Methods: From July 2003 through February 2004, HIV-infected women attending either an infectious disease clinic or a sexually transmitted infection (STI) clinic in Bangkok were tested for high-risk HPV types by Hybrid Capture 2 and screened for cervical cancer by Pap test; those with abnormal cervical cytology were referred for diagnosis and treatment.

Sexually transmitted infection services as a component of HIV care: findings of a demonstration project among HIV-infected women in Thailand.

Objectives: As Thailand scales up its antiretroviral treatment program, the role of sexually transmitted infection (STI) services to prevent HIV transmission has not been addressed. We provided STI services for HIV-infected women as a component of HIV care and assessed STI prevalence and risk behaviors.

Methods: HIV-infected women attending an infectious disease clinic and an STI clinic in Bangkok were screened for the presence of genital ulcers by visual inspection, for gonorrhea and chlamydial infection by polymerase chain reaction, for trichomoniasis by wet mount, and for syphilis by serology.

Evaluation of a new single-parameter volumetric flow cytometer (CyFlow(green)) for enumeration of absolute CD4+ T lymphocytes in human immunodeficiency virus type 1-infected Thai patients.

Use of the standard dual-platform flow cytometric method for determination of CD4(+) T-lymphocyte counts, which needs both a flow cytometer (FCM) and hematological analyzer, would inevitably lead to increased variability. The development of new single-platform (SP) FCMs that provide direct CD4(+) T-lymphocyte counts for improved assay precision and accuracy have recently attracted attention. This study evaluated one of those systems, CyFlow(green) (Partec), a single-parameter SP volumetric FCM.