Session 6: Introduction to Quality Control - Part I
Host / Moderator Anthony Anderson, DHSc, ELD and Eva Schenkman, MS, TS
Does Temperature Really Matter?
Thomas “Rusty” Pool, PhD, HCLD
Quality Control in the Digital Age:
Quality Control in the Cloud
Giles Palmer, BS
Enhancing Quality Systems with Digital Methods
Carol Curchoe, PhD
Organized by NYMES and START Embryology Societies
Dr. Thomas Pool
Thomas B. (Rusty) Pool, Ph.D., HCLD(ABB) is the Scientific Director of the Fertility Center of San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, USA, a position he has held for 34 years. Prior to this, he was an Associate Professor of Cellular and Structural Biology at the University of Texas Medical School in San Antonio where he worked on culture and cryobiology of non-human primate embryos. He is board member of the Pacific Coast Fertility Society and serves on the editorial boards of Fertility and Sterility and the Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics. His research interests have centered upon the physiology of the preimplantation human embryo and improvements to embryo culture technology.
Giles Palmer
Giles Palmer is a senior clinical embryologist, skilled in Laboratory, Business and Quality management. After graduating in Genetics at Leeds University, UK he attained a position as research officer at London's Hammersmith Hospital's acclaimed IVF unit working with Professors Lord Winston and Alan Handyside. After a consultancy position for Iceland's first IVF Unit (University Hospital, Reykjavik) he moved to Greece in 1992.
Since moving to Greece, he has worked in the largest IVF units in Athens.
He was Director of the highly successful Assisted Reproduction Unit at Mitera hospital in Athens 2002-2016. His collaboration with St. Sophia's Children's Hospital (Athens University) resulted in the first birth in Greece following embryo-biopsy and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, and has led to publications in Leading Scientific journals concerning many topics including Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis for Cystic Fibrosis and B-thalassaemia. He is a member of ESHRE (European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology), ARCS (The Association of Reproductive and Clinical Scientists), PEKE (Greek Society of Clinical Embryologists) , SLTB (Society of Low Temperature Biology) and has been accredited with Senior Embryologist Status by ESHRE. More recently he has become a consultant and product developer in a wide range of areas within the industry including cleanroom technology; quality management; risk assessment for clinics & cryo-storage facilities and Artificial Intelligence in ART.
DR. CAROL CURCHOE
Dr. Carol Lynn Curchoe, TS (ABB) is a reproductive physiologist. Her PhD. research focused on animal cloning and her postdoctoral fellowship focused on human embryonic stem cell research. Her previous startup experience includes being the founder and CEO of 32ATPs, where she applied her knowledge of biochemistry and biotechnology to the field of renewable energy, creating a patented biological supercapacitor. She is the founder of ART Compass, www.artcompass.io a software platform for IVF lab management and staff related quality assurance. She is the author of numerous publications and The Thin Pink Line (Nova Science publishers, 2021), a critical exploration of historical perspectives and controversial topics in modern gynecology from birth control to sterilization, to episiotomies and the “husband stitch,” to “educational” pelvic exams, shackling laboring convicts, gender affirming surgery, human embryo research, assisted reproduction and more.