ExecutiveBoard

151st Meeting of the IFCC Executive Board
March 31st, 2021
Minutes
The 151st Meeting of the IFCC Executive Board was held via Zoom Conference

Participants:EB Members
Khosrow Adeli
David Kinniburgh
Alexander Haliassos
Joseph Passarelli
Adekunle Bashiru Okesina
Abderrazek Hedhili
Sunil Sethi
Ana-Maria Šimundić
Ana María Lena RodríguezStephen Hill

(KA)
(DK)
(AHA)
(JP)
(ABO)
(AH)
(SSE)
(AMS)
(AMLR)(SH)

President
Secretary
Treasurer
Corporate Members Representative (ROCHE)
African Federation of Clinical Chemistry (AFCC)
Arab Federation of Clinical Biology (AFCB)
Asia-Pacific Fed for Clinical Biochemistry and Lab Med (APFCB)
European Fed of Clin Chem and Lab Med (EFLM)
Latin-American Conf of Clin Biochemistry (COLABIOCLI)North American Fed of Clin Chem and Lab Med (NAFCC)________

1.0
1.0

Preliminaries
Final WorldLab guidelines Document
Updates to EuroMedLab guidelines
KA emailed the revised WorldLab guidelines for 2026 to the EB for their review prior to theEB meeting and these were approved at the EB meeting
IFCC Conference Schedule (WorldLab, EuroMedLab, and Regional/Special Conferences)
KA send out a new schedule for meetings, with one main IFCC event per year rotating
between IFCC EuroMedLab in Europe and the IFCC WorldLab in another region. Ideally,
we would like to establish one set of guidelines for all of these conferences regardless of
where they will be held. In line with this new conference program, the EB has also decided
to include all regional federations as conference partners, if they wish, not only in Europe
but also other regions where we hold our WorldLab conferences. The EB supported thisplan and KA will ask the C-CC to work on this plan.
IFCC Annual Townhall

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The Townhall meetings will start with virtual meetings, and will be in-person meetings atconferences thereafter, beginning in the fall. KA will work with the Office to organize
meetings.
IFCC Annual Survey of National Societies and Regional Federations
Surveys will be sent out in the fall and annually thereafter.
IFCC Annual Survey of Corporate Members
TF-CM will send out a survey to Corporate Members. The proposed survey will bereviewed with the EB prior to distribution.
Appointment of a New Accounting Firm for IFCC
KA suggested that Office do the bookkeeping (debits and credits) and then provide theaccounts to an accounting firm monthly or quarterly, who will review the books and create
statement for review by the Treasurer, EB and for the audit. The Treasurer will continue tobe responsible for financial oversight. AH also suggested that if we want to expand ourinvoicing etc. we can contract this out to the firm as well. The firm will also review financial
operations in the Office and make suggestions about how to improve and align processes.
KA has contacted KPMG (Italy), Deloitte (Italy), and PwC (Italy) for initial information and a
final decision will be made after review of their proposals. A decision on a company toperform the annual audit will be considered later.
1.1.150

Minutes of the Zoom meeting of February 24th, 2021
The draft minutes will be circulated.

13.1.17

Task Force on Global Newborn Screening (TF-NBS)
New Survey of National Societies on NBS
The TF-NBS is reviewing the results of the NBS survey to determine which countries tostart working with.
EB liaison to be determined

13.1.18

Task Force on Global Lab Quality (TF-GLQ)
The TF-GLQ is reviewing responses to the Survey of interest from countries andresponses to the Request for Proposal (RFP) to select an EQA/IQC provider, or possibly agroup of providers based on company experience in counties of interest. .
KA met with AACC regarding their GLQ activities and possibly working together. Further
discussions will be held.
EB liaison to be determined

13.1.19

Task Force on Outcome Studies in Lab Med (TF-OSLM)
On hold pending further update

13.1.20

Task Force Global Ref Intervals consortium (TF-GRIDLC)
Development of the database is delayed due to staffing difficulties at Insoft caused by
COVID. KA will contact Ion for an update

13.1.21

Task Force on Global eLearning/eAcademy (TF-GEL)
Progress with webinars is less than the goal of 2 per month but is anticipated to increase
soon. Nader Rifai and the Boston Children’s Hospital has confirmed sponsorship, and KA
is finalizing sponsorship from Siemens.
EB liaison to be determined.

13.0
13.1.1

Task Forces
Task Force on Ethics (TF-E)

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EB liaison to be determined
13.1.6

Task Force Young Scientists (TF-YS)
EB liaison to be determined.

13.1.12

Task Force History (TF-H)
EB liaison to be determined

13.1.15

Task Force Corporate Members (TF-CM)
Call for nomination for 3 members (1 Secretary and 2 Members).
The EB approved the new members as recommended by the TF-CM. JP noted that theTF-CM membership, including corresponding members, now represents 11 of theCorporate Members and has a good international representation. The TF continues tomeet monthly.

13.1.16

Task Force on COVID 19 – liaison KA
Guidelines on antigen testing and immunization monitoring.
The guideline publication on antigen testing is being finalized. The next guideline will be onimmunization and how to monitor effectiveness, and will be completed in the next few
months.

2.0
2.2

Full Member Societies
Applications
Libyan Association of Clinical Pathology LACPThe e-voting by Council on the new membership recommendation for the Libyan
Association of Clinical Pathology is planned for April 15th-May 15, 2021.

3.0
3.4

Corporate Members
Annual Dues
Beijing Dream Diagnostics
There has been no response to a letter sent regarding unpaid dues since 2018. The EB
agreed to terminate membership.

4.0
4.4.

Affiliate Members
Annual Dues
Overall, there has been a good response from all Members in paying dues and PB will
prepare a report for the next meeting.

6.0
6.1

International and Professional Organisations
WHOEB liaison
ABO is the liaison with WHO and has met with Sverre Sandberg, DK and KA to discuss
ways to improve communication with WHO. Sverre will draft letter to WHO in this regard.

6.2

CLSI
Agreement renewal
KA will review the new CLSI draft agreement, and the EB will approve by email.

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7.2

Committee on Congresses and Conferences (C-CC)
IFCC WorldLab Congresses
New IFCC Virtual Conference Guidelines
KA will update the C-CC on revised WorldLab and EuroMedLab guidelines and theproposed new conference schedule, and ask them for their input. The request for bids forWorldLab 2026 will be released after discussion with C-CC. A meeting will be arranged
meeting for KA, DK and PB with full the C-CC.

7.2.24IFCC WorldLab 2020, Seoul (KR)The announcement for the WorldLab 2022 and APFCB 2022 joint Congress was releasedon March 8, 2021.

7.4.10Specialized Virtual Conference on “Critical Role of Clinical Laboratories in COVID 19Pandemic”
Survey of Conference Delegates and Corporate Sponsors
The response to the survey of delegates and corporate sponsors attending the Virtual
Conference was very positive.

7.3.1.16

Asia Pacific Federation for Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine (APFCB)
joint Congress with WorldLab Seoul
SSE will follow up with MZ to finalize details for the joint APFCB/WorldLab congress. A
Howard Morris memorial session has been agreed upon.

7.3.2.25

EuroMedLab 2021, Munich (DE)
Ethical MedTech Nov letter enquiry
We have had no response to the request for further clarification on this issue and so wewill interpret the rules based on the information provided to date.
Follow up on DGKL Annual meeting 2021
We have not had a reply from DGKL on their congress plans.

7.3.4.25

Latin American Confederation of Clinical Biochemistry -COLABIOCLICOLABIOCLI León – Guanajuato, Mexico, 2022
March 30 – April 2, 2022
The EB will meet during and after the COLABIOCLI Congress and not before theCongress. Details for the scholarships will be released soon.

8.0

Scientific Division (SD)EB liaison to be determined

8.3.61

Working Group “Development of a Reference Measurement System PT/INR
Standardization” (WG-PT-INR)
The MoU with SSC/ISTH was approved by the EB and signed by KA, and is now waitingfor ISTH signature

9.0
9.2.4

Education and Management Division (EMD)
Clinical Molecular Biology Curriculum (C-CMBC)The EB approved the EMD-EC recommendation to appoint Prof. Gracieia Russomando asa member of C-CMBC.

9.2.11

Education in use Biomarkers Diabetes (C-EUBD)
The EB approved the EMD-EC recommendation to appoint Dr. Emma English as the new
Chair of C-EUBD.

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10.0

Communications and Publications Division (CPD
EB liaison to be determined

11.00

Emerging Technologies Division (ETD)
EB liaison to be determined

11.40

Other
Partnership Agreement for HIMSS Partners Innovation Exchange (HIMSS PIE initiative).
This will be addressed via email.

11.2.3

Committee on Omics Translation (C-OT)The EB approved the ETD-EC recommendation to appoint Dr Teupser a member of C-OT.

12.00

IFCC Awards
The Award Ceremony and dinner will be held at EuroMedLab Munich, Nov 2021.

12.1

Awards Committee Membership
Maurizio Ferrari will Chair the Awards Committee.

13.03

Scholarships
The status of scholarships that have been awarded for EuroMedLab and WorldLabCongresses will be reviewed to determine if awardees are still able to attend.

15.00
15.2

Finances
The Financial Audit for 2020 is completed and a meeting will be held with the Auditor, PB,AH, KD and DK to discuss the report.
A meeting was held with the lawyers to confirm the IFCC tax status with respect to VAT indifferent countries where congresses may be held. A report is expected from the lawyers.

19.0
19.1

Meetings
Council meeting
The EB agreed to not hold the Council meeting as a virtual meeting in May and it will bescheduled as an in-person meeting at the EuroMedLab Congress. An option for virtual
attendance could be included. If a virtual meeting is necessary, our lawyers haveconfirmed that it will be acceptable to Swiss law.

19.80

Executive Board Meetings – conference calls:- Wednesday, March 31st- Wednesday, April 28th
- Tuesday, May 18th
- Wednesday, June 23rd
- Wednesday, July 28th••

Milan office: possible KA/DK/AHA in person meeting with staff/MZ
Lake Maggiore: September/October 2021, dates to be defined (2 ½ days).

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16.0
16.1

Organisational Matters
IFCC Office
New staff member
An advertisement has been prepared and applicants will be shortlisted by Stefano andMauro, with a final interview by DK and KA to select the successful candidate. Additional
staff may be added in 2021 depending upon increase in activities.

16.3

Nominations Committee
Membership
KA and DK will consider options for the Chair of the Nominations Committee, and if
possible a decision will be made by email.

16.4

Annual Report 2020
Project on-going, as electronic version only.

16.5

Handbook 2021-2023
Project on-going

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