Dr Michael Noble
Dr. Noble career began in 1978 as a medical microbiologist, but overtime issues associated with laboratory quality improvement became central to his work focus.
Dr. Noble is the founding Chair of the Clinical Microbiology Proficiency Testing (CMPT) program. In 1983 he took over the stewardship of the program and developed it into a cross-Canada program with international outreach.
In 2001, Dr. Noble developed the Program Office for Laboratory Quality Management (POLQM) and the UBC Certificate Course in Laboratory Quality Management to help laboratorians around the world in Quality Management and Quality Improvement. This certificate has seen more than 500 graduates since it started.
He has been the force behind the Laboratory Quality Management Conference held every two years in Vancouver BC.
Dr. Noble continues to be actively engaged in medical laboratory quality management through participation with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Teaching and Education Center for Health (ITECH). He has served as a consultant for the WHO – Quality Assessment programs for Southern Africa, the Department of Medical Science, Thailand: Water Quality Assessment and the Zimbabwe National Quality Assurance Program and continues to provide support and expert advice around the world.
Dr. Noble is the recipient of numerous awards, most recently receiving the David Hardwick Lifetime Achievement Award in the UBC Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.
During the last 3-4 years, Dr. Noble worked really hard to secure a successor for his position and make sure both programs would continue with their success and serving laboratories and laboratorians achieve the high level of quality he always expected of this profession.
Having achieved this by securing the Donald B. Rix professorship in Laboratory Quality, Dr. Noble has enabled UBC to continue improving the quality of laboratory services across Canada and internationally.
We at CMPT, the staff, and expert committee volunteers, are very grateful for his leadership, mentoring, and expertise and specially for his contagious passion for laboratory Quality improvement.
