Robert Rej

The Clinical Chemistry and Hematology section carries out appropriate proficiency testing of laboratories, evaluates performance and recommends corrective actions for raising performance levels to meet and exceed acceptable standards. Reference and consultation services are provided to permit laboratories, researchers, Federal agencies, and other agencies. The laboratory also investigates, develop, and evaluate technical procedures, provide consultation and laboratory support to health officers, physicians, and laboratory personnel; conduct and participate in seminars, workshops, scientific meetings; conduct research in clinical biochemistry, hematology, clinical enzymology, and drug analysis with the aim of improved analytical techniques, reference values, and biological standards.

Dr. Rej’s interests include the standardization and harmonization of inter-laboratory measurements so that reproducible and comparable results can be attained from multiple laboratories. He has carried out investigations leading to the identification of specific sources of error in clinical measurements and mechanisms to correct them. His laboratory was an active participant in the CDC Cholesterol Reference Method Laboratory Network and is involved in other national and international standardization efforts. Dr. Rej has also worked on the development of new methods and markers to assess tissue damage in human subjects and in animal models. The laboratory also is active in the application of clinical laboratory measurements to problems of exposure to environmental chemicals.

Dr. Rej has testified before the U.S. Congress on laboratory issues and was a member of Clinical Chemistry and Toxicology Devices Advisory Panel to the Food and Drug Administration. He is the current Chair of the US Technical Advisory Group to International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Technical Committee 212 on Medical Laboratory Testing and in-vitro Diagnostic Test Systems and a contributing author to the ISO standard 15189 which is widely-recognized as the definitive management standard for medical laboratories.