About Us

The Laboratory Training Branch (LTB)

LTB partners with internal CDC and external subject matter experts (SMEs) to develop and deliver continuing education courses in a variety of training modalities for the public health and clinical laboratory community. Training modalities include hands-on, multi-day laboratory training workshops, national teleconferences, seminars, train-the-trainer workshops, and web-based products. These courses address the need for laboratory professionals to maintain essential skills, conduct high-quality tests, and adopt new testing technologies and practice. LTB also works closely with the SMEs to evaluate each training activity to provide valuable insight into the adaptation of the training material into daily laboratory practice to determine training impact.

LTB STAFF

LTB employs a diverse mixture of health scientists and multimedia specialists to meet the changing needs of laboratory training. Health scientists with laboratory experience and instructional design backgrounds assist the SMEs in identifying training goals and developing training content focused on critical learning objectives. Multimedia specialists with expertise in photography, videography, animation, and audio production provide the technical expertise needed to incorporate enhanced "sight and sound" into online learning formats.

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN

LTB applies adult learning practices and instructional design models such as ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation) to create focused and effective laboratory training programs.

LTB PARTNERS

LTB partners with laboratories and programs across CDC and the public health laboratory system with a need to transfer information to the public health and clinical laboratory audience. LTB also works closely with public health laboratories to identify training needs and share them with CDC programs. LTB partners across federal agencies as well with long standing relationships with FDA, EPA, DOD, DOS, FBI and Homeland Security to contribute subject matter expertise. LTB also partners with APHL and WHO to establish a variety of training distribution mechanisms.

EVALUATION

LTB assists SMEs in developing comprehensive training evaluation strategies based upon the Kirkpatrick Four-Level Training Evaluation Model. Through evaluation LTB is able to provide partnering programs with critical information related to training effectiveness and identify potential areas of improvement in future course offerings. Verification of skill or method adaptation in the public health and clinical laboratory community is a powerful tool in justifying the funding needed to maintain current training and develop future training programs.