Romney Humphries, PhD, professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology and director of the Division of Laboratory Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has received the 2024 John V. Bergen Excellence Award from the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI).
CLSI presents the John V. Bergen Excellence Award to an outstanding member “in recognition of advances in CLSI organizational directives and objectives, through unique and significant contributions,” CLSI said in a news release.
CLSI works to improve patient care by bringing together more than 24,000 expert members to develop best practice standards, guidelines and products for medical laboratories.
“Dr. Humphries’ contributions to CLSI have been not only significant insofar as the sheer amount of work and time she has devoted to the organization, but her contributions have also been unique in that she has strengthened CLSI’s place amongst similar organizations as a true leader in international antimicrobial susceptibility testing,” said Audrey Schuetz, MD, MPH, professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science in Rochester, Minnesota, and a member of CLSI’s Expert Panel on Microbiology.
Humphries and her team focus on antimicrobial resistance. They evaluate methods to improve the speed and accuracy of identifying antibiotic-resistant bacteria infecting patients, study antimicrobial resistance mechanisms in clinical isolates as they evolve in real time and evaluate novel antimicrobial treatments.
“It’s very humbling to be recognized by CLSI for doing the work that I love,” said Humphries, who is also medical director of the Infectious Diseases Laboratory Service at VUMC. “Antibiotic resistance is a global dilemma, and the standards developed by CLSI ensure the best lab testing is available for patients regardless of the country they live in.”
Humphries is the author of more than 150 peer-reviewed articles and numerous book chapters, and she has lectured internationally on the topics of antimicrobial resistance and diagnostic microbiology. She is a member of CLSI’s Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing Subcommittee, the College of American Pathologists Microbiology Committee, and the American Society for Microbiology Professional Practices Committee, and she is vice chair of the Infectious Diseases Society of America Diagnostics Committee.