ASIA-PACIFIC FEDERATION FOR CLINICAL BIOCHEMISTRYAND LABORATORY MEDICINE

Annual Report for 2015
1.

APFCB matters
Ordinary members
The following National Societies are members of the APFCB:
1. Australasian Association of Clinical Biochemists (AACB)
2. Chinese Society of Laboratory Medicine (CSLM)
3. Hong Kong Society of Clinical Chemistry (HKSCC)
4. Association of Clinical Biochemists of India (ACBI)
5. Indonesian Association of Clinical Chemistry (IACC)
6. Japan Society of Clinical Chemistry (JSCC)
7. Korean Society of Clinical Chemistry (KSCC)
8. Malaysian Association of Clinical Biochemists (MACB)
9. Mongolian Association of Health Laboratorians (MAHL)
10. Nepal Association for Medical Laboratory Sciences (NAMLS)
11. Pakistan Society of Chemical Pathologists (PSCP)
12. Philippine Association of Medical Technologists (PAMET)
13. Singapore Association of Clinical Biochemists (SACB)
14. Association for Clinical Biochemistry, Sri Lanka (ACBSL)
15. Chinese Association for Clinical Biochemistry, Taiwan (CACB)
16. Thailand Association of Clinical Biochemists (TACB)
17. Vietnamese Association of Clinical Biochemistry (VACB)
Corporate Members
1. Abbott Diagnostics
2. BD Diagnostics
3. Beckman Coulter
4. Bio-Rad
5. Diasorin Ltd
6. Diasys Diagnostic Systems, GmbH
7. Guangzhou Wondfo Biotech Co
8. Kopran Laboratories Ltd
9. Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics
10. PM Separations
11. Randox Laboratories
12. Roche Diagnostics
13. Sekisui Chemical Co
14. Shenzen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co Ltd
15. Siemens
116. SNIBE (Shenzhen New Industries Biomedical Engineering Co Ltd)

17. Sukraa Software Solution Pvt Ltd
18. Sysmex
19. Technidata Medical Software
Affiliate Members
1. Chinese Association of Clinical Laboratory Management (CACLM)
2. Association of Medical Biochemists of India (AMBI)
3. Macao Laboratory Medicine Association (MLMA)
4. Nepalese Association of Clinical Chemistry (NACC)

Office Bearers (1 January 2014 till 31 December 2016)
Executive Board
President
Immediate Past President
Vice-President
Secretary
Treasurer
Corporate Representative

Leslie Lai (Malaysia)
Joseph Lopez(Malaysia)
Sunil Sethi (Singapore)
Endang Hoyaranda(Indonesia)
Elizabeth Frank (India)
Martin Fuhrer (Siemens)

Chairs of Committees
Communications(C-Comm)
Congress and Conferences (C-CC)
Education and Laboratory Management(C-ELM)
Scientific (C-Sci)

Praveen Sharma (India)
Joseph Lopez (Malaysia)
Tony Badrick (Australia)
Kiyoshi Ichihara (Japan)

Executive Board meeting
The Executive Board held a meeting from 5th to 6th September 2015 inSingapore.
Resignation of Mr Martin Fuhrer, Corporate Representative to the EB
The former Corporate Representative to the EB, Mr Martin Fuhrer,
resigned from Siemens on 31st August 2015. The EB would like to record
its thanks to Mr Martin Fuhrer for his invaluable and tireless contributions
to the APFCB which has helped greatly in the advancement and growth of
the APFCB and its activities. Mr Martin Fuhrer was elected by the
Corporate members as Corporate Representative to the APFCB EB in
October 2010 in Seoul, Korea and re-elected for a second term in October
2013 in Bali, Indonesia.
2New Corporate Representative to the APFCB EB
The APFCB EB welcomed the new Corporate Representative, Mr
Alexander Wong of Siemens at the EB meeting held in the Siemens
headquarters in Singapore on 5th and 6th September 2015. Mr Alexander
Wong was appointed to be the new Corporate Representative with theagreement of the Corporate members from 1st September 2015 till 31st
December 2016.
New Members
Ordinary member
MAHL was promoted from Affiliate membership to Ordinary membershipin March 2015.
Affiliate member
NACC was accepted as an Affiliate member in October 2015.
Corporate members
Two new Corporate members joined the APFCB:
1. Guangzhou Wondfo Biotech Co in May 2015
2. SNIBE in October 2015
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between APFCB and AACC
An MoU between APFCB and AACC was signed on 11 December 2014
between the President of APFCB and the CEO of AACC, Dr Janet
Kreizman. The MOU is effective for a period of two years from 1.1.2015 till
31.12.2016.
Silver Jubilee Celebration
The MACB celebrated its Silver Jubilee at its Annual Scientific Conference
from 3rd to 5th August 2015 at the Double Tree Hotel in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia. The President of APFCB presented the President of MACB, Dr
Raja Elina Raja Aziddin with a crystal memento from the APFCB.

3

From left to right: Dr Leslie Lai, President of APFCB, VIP Dato' Tan Yoke
Hwa, Director of Allied Health Sciences Division, Ministry of Health
Malaysia, Dr Raja Elina Raja Aziddin. President of MACB.

2.

APFCB ACTIVITIESI.

APFCB Education and Laboratory Management Committee (CELM)
Chair: Associate Prof Tony Badrick (Australia)
1. IFCC Visiting Lecturer for 2015 and 2016: Prof Howard Morris(Australia)
The theme of Prof Howard Morris’s IFCC Visiting Lectureship is
Vitamin D and bone disease.
Prof Howard Morris presented his lectures at the following
conferences/meetings in 2015:
1. Hong Kong Society of Clinical Chemistry 15th Annual Scientific
Meeting, Hong Kong 10 January 2015. Plenary Speaker,

4"Strategies for interpreting and commenting on clinical laboratory
results".
2. China Association of Clinical Biochemistry Annual Scientific
Meeting, Taipei, 21 March 2015. Plenary Speaker, "Vitamin D:
Molecular actions across a variety of biological systems".
3. The Endocrine Society and Diabetes Association of the Republicof China (Taiwan) 36th Annual Meeting, Taipei, 21 March 2015.
Plenary Speaker, "Vitamin D: Molecular actions across a variety of
biological systems".
4. Visiting Lecturer, NCKU-Hospital, Tainan 23 March 2015.
5. Chinese National Meeting of Laboratory Medicine, Nanjing, China
9 - 12 September 2015, symposium presentations "Bone markers
and their use 2015" and "Standardisation and harmonisation inlaboratory medicine".
2. APFCB Travelling Lecturer for 2015 and 2016: Associate Prof
Graham Jones
Associate Prof Graham Jones spoke on the topic of Chronic Kidney
Disease (CKD) in the following countries Singapore, Vietnam, India,
China and Mexico (WASPaLM World Congress). Associate Prof
Graham Jones will deliver his lectures in Hong Kong in January 2016
and will deliver a Plenary Lecture at the 14th APFCB Congress in
Taipei in 2016.
3. APFCB-AACB Travel Scholarships
The two winners of the 2015 APFCB-AACB Travel Scholarships toattend the AACB Annual Scientific Meeting in Sydney were:
Dr.Sudhesna Mohapatra of Neogen Labs Private Ltd, Bangalore, India
who presented a poster entitled “Evaluation of newborn screening forthe diagnosis of Carnitine Uptake deficiency in Indian Population” andJinia Lilianty of PT. Prodia Widyahusada, Jakarta, Indonesia who
presented a poster entitled “Vitamin A and Vitamin E deficiency
development in Indonesian Population”.
4. Planning of future Courses and Congress Symposia andWorkshops
There will be two workshops for to be held at the 14th APFCBCongress in Taipei in 2016. The first workshop is a Joint WASPaLMAPFCB Accreditation Workshop with the following topics covered byeither APFCB or WASPaLM speakers;
1. Quality Systems Approach to Improvement52. Introduction to ISO 15189
3. Ethical Practice/Governance
4. Staff training and competence
5. Request-Report cycle and error
6. QA/QC
The other workshop will be an APFCB Pre-analytical workshop withthe following topics and speakers:
1. Introduction and Chair – Joseph Lopez
2. Pre-analytical errors and quality improvement – Qing He Meng
3. Phlebotomy competence – solutions – Endang Hoyaranda
4. Haemolysis an ongoing problem – Tony Badrick
Also at the 14th APFCB Congress will be a hypothetical entitled “thevalue of pathology” organised by the C-ELM in conjunction with
Roche. The aim of this activity is to raise awareness of the importanceof Pathology testing.
Planning began in 2015 with Roche Diagnostics to develop a series ofworkshops/courses dealing with Lean-Six Sigma. These workshops
will be jointly organised by the local APFCB Ordinary Member orAffiliate Member Society, the APFCB and Roche Diagnostics. The firstof these will be run in Vietnam in 2016.
The Committee is also planning for a Chemical Pathology Course to
be run in Malaysia in 2016. The course will run for 3 days and will
involve local and invited speakers. The content will be developed froma curriculum based on the AACB Chemical Pathology Course and is apilot for this type of course in the region.
The APFCB will be sponsoring a symposium at the AACC 2016
Annual Meeting that has already been accepted by the Organising
Committee. The programme and speakers are as follows:
Title of Symposium: Addressing pre and post analytical issues indeveloping countries. Chair: Tony Badrick

1. Driving change in the pre-analytical phase of testing
Endang Hoyaranda
2. Understanding the impact of race and ethnicity on common tests
Kiyoshi Ichihara
63. Improving clinical commenting by a QA program
Tony Badrick
5. Interpretative comments programme
There were six cases in 2015. The purpose of these cases andsuggested responses is to provide some clinical cases for continuing
education. Again there was a wide range of responses with between
15 and 45 participants for each case.
6. Young Scientist Competition (coordinated by Dra Endang
Hoyaranda)
The APFCB Young Scientist Award Competition is a scientific paper
competition conducted by the APFCB through C-ELM with thefollowing objectives:
1. To foster and encourage scientific inter-exchange amongst young
scientists within the Asia-Pacific region
2. To help and encourage young scientists in both written and oral
communication of their research results
Scientists under the age of 40 on 26 November 2016 (opening of the
14th APFCB Congress in Taiwan) are eligible for this competition.
There will be 5 (five) young scientists selected from all those who
submit papers to present their papers as oral presentations at the 14th
APFCB Congress in Taipei, Taiwan, on 26-29 November 2016. A
dedicated symposium during this congress will be allocated to thiscompetition. All five oral presenters will be sponsored by Siemens toattend the 14th APFCB Congress and the Congress Organising
Committee has kindly agreed to waive registration fees. There will be afirst prize winner of SGD 1,000 and a second prize of SGD 500
sponsored by Siemens.

II. Scientific Committee (C-Sc)
Chair: Prof Kiyoshi Ichihara (Japan)
1. Regional reference interval study (chaired by Prof Kiyoshi
Ichihara)
After completing the study in Japan, China, Pakistan, India, andPhilippines, teams in Nepal, Malaysia and Bangladesh began toactively conduct the study for derivation of country-specific reference
7intervals. Representatives for Nepal, Malaysia, India, Pakistan are
members of the C-Sci and all met and discussed the progress in Paris
during EuroMedLab 2015 at the IFCC C-RIDL meeting.
A web-site was developed in June 2015 for evidence-based laboratory
medicine (EBLM) based on results from the 2009 Asian multicenter
study which provides interactive viewing of information on sources ofvariations of reference values for 72 analytes:
http://c-sci-apfcb.net/eblm/index.html
Publications
Shimizu Y, Ichihara K on behalf of the Scientific Committee for the
Asia-Pacific Federation of Clinical Biochemistry. Sources of variation
analysis and derivation of reference intervals for ALP, LDH, andamylase isozymes using sera from the Asian multicenter study onreferencevalues.
Clin
Chim
Acta
2015;
446:
64–72.
Masuda S, Ichihara K, Yamanishi H, Hirano Y, Tanaka Y, Kamisako T
on behalf of the Scientific Committee for the Asia-Pacific Federation ofClinical Biochemistry. Evaluation of menstrual cycle-related changes in
85 clinical laboratory analytes. Ann Clin Biochem 2015 (In press. doi:
10.1177/0004563215617212).
Jono H, Su Y, Obayashi K, Tanaka Y, et al. Sources of variation oftransthyretin in healthy subjects in East and Southeast Asia: Clinicaland experimental evidence for the effect of alcohol on transthyretin
metabolism. Submitted to Ann Clin Biochem (under evaluation).
2. New regional project on building a case record database of
haematological malignancy (chaired by Prof Kiyoshi Ichihara)
Making best use of value-assigned serum panel, a new project ofbuilding a well-defined, case-record database of hematologicalmalignancy in collaboration with four Asian countries: Pakistan,
Bangladesh, India, Japan is being planned. The purpose of the projectis to explore possible country-specific differences in clinical andlaboratory test results of the disorders. The information will be usefulfor the practice of EBLM for pathological conditions.

8

3. Urine steroid metabolomic studies by gas chromatography mass
spectrometry to aid the diagnosis of disorders of sex
development in Vietnamese children (working group chaired by
Dr Ronda Greaves)
The National Hospital of Pediatrics (NHP) has progressed well with thisdifficult project. Dr Mai and her colleagues worked in the first half of2015 to validate the method. In May 2015, Dr Mai reported that her
team was ready to commence participation in the external quality
assurance program offered by SKML in the Netherlands and SKML
advised that a mid-year enrolment was acceptable. From July 2015
NHP has been enrolled in the SKML programme for urine steroids andthe 2015 material supplied has been used for initial evaluation of themethod. The 2016 SKML enrolment will be used as a formal EQA toconfirm on-going method performance.
Once this has been
established the reference interval and ratio studies will be performed.
All samples for these studies have been collected and are stored at-20oC awaiting analysis.
4. Vietnam Chemical Pathology Course conducted under APFCB
auspices (organised by Dr Ronda Greaves)
The 7th Vietnam Chemical Pathology Course (CPC) was conducted on
Saturday 6th June 2015 in Ho Chi Minh City and on Tuesday 9 th June2015 in Hanoi. The speakers were Assoc Prof Graham Jones, Dr.
Dinh Thi Thanh Hoa (Clinical Biochemist, Bach Mai hospital, Ha Noi),
Pharm. Tran Huu Tam (Director of CSQL of HCMC, Vietnam) and Dr
Ronda Greaves. The attendance was as anticipated with around 350
participants in Ho Chi Minh City and 200 participants in Hanoi. In
addition to the recordings, this year there was a live telecast of the Ho
Chi Minh City CPC through the APFCB website. Re-recordings werealso made of the 6th Vietnam CPC; as the original recordings were ofpoor quality. Discussions have commenced for the 8th Vietnam CPC
for 2016. Preliminary discussions are also in place to initiate a similar
CPC in Yangon within the next year.
All recordings will be made available online for the APFCB website indual language and also for the IFCC e-Academy in English.
Acknowledgements:
The APFCB thanks Roche Diagnostics Vietnam, particularly Mr Tien
and Mr Rod Ward, for their continued support of professional
development in the region.

95. Vietnam Workshops – Point of care testing (organised by Dr
Ronda Greaves)
The 3rd Vietnam Point of Care Patient Testing Workshop was
conducted in Ho Chi Minh City on 11th June 2015 at the RMIT Vietnam
Campus in District 3. Mrs Jo-Ann Northfield (Royal Children’s Hospital
Melbourne POCT phlebotomy nurse / technician and RMIT POCT
Course workshop leader) and Dr Ronda Greaves conducted thisworkshop. On Friday 12th June 2015 a POCT half-day seminar was
conducted in association with Jo-Ann Northfield, Mr Eric Law (Roche
Diagnostics Singapore) and Dr Ronda Greaves to present quality
management solutions for POCT to senior hospital officials. The
eventuation of the potential Six Sigma Workshop did not progress in2015 and is now planned for 2016. Discussions have commenced to
expand the workshop activities to Hanoi.
Acknowledgements:
The APFCB acknowledges the support of Roche Diagnostics Vietnam
and Asia for the Workshop and Seminar.
6. Regional project for harmonisation of mass spectrometry-based
steroid assays (working group chaired by Dr Ronda Greaves)
The list of scientists / laboratories interested in participating in the
APFCB Mass Spectrometry (MS) Harmonisation working group
continues to grow, with approximately two thirds encompassing
members of the AACB. This APFCB MS Master group list has become
quite large and required some time for management. After some initial
discussions with the AACB CEO, Mr Peter Graham, the Master List
was transferred to the AACB Office for administration purposes. The
Office has agreed to send out emails on behalf of the APFCB
Harmonisation Working Group and will support maintaining the contact
list. The first email trial, which informed everyone on the list of thischange (with an opt-out option) was successful. This centralised list
was also used to invite people to this year’s open face to face groupmeeting conducted on Wednesday 16th September 2015 during the
AACB Annual Scientific Meeting. The added advantage of thiscentralised approach is that there is now a place to record the RSVP
and attendance record for these annual face to face meetings.
The work conducted by the group was initially focused on serum
testosterone analysis, with the plan to expand this work to other serum
steroids in 2015. The establishment of the DHT pilot programmewithin the RCPAQAP Endocrine program was the primary focus of the2015 harmonisation initiative. For this project the working group10

obtained help from Prof Stefan Wudy (University Giessen Germany) toestablish targets for DHT and other steroid analytes using GC-MS.
These targets were successfully applied to DHT for the second cycle of2015. This is the first EQA scheme to offer DHT to our knowledge
worldwide and the RCPAQAP have agreed to continue this into 2016.
One of the difficult hurdles to overcome is the establishment ofcommutability of commercial calibrators and the RCPAQAP material;as it is the base for the harmonisation comparison. As an outcome of
the 2015 AACB Annual Scientific Meeting in Sydney, a Commutability
Working Party was formed. This group’s focus is to establish thecommutability of the RCPAQAP Endocrine material; including theserum steroids. The APFCB MS Harmonisation Working Group isrepresented on this Working Party. To date experimental studies arebeing developed.
Publications
Lisa Jolly, Stefan A. Wudy, Michaela F. Hartmann, Chung Shun Ho,
Richard KT Kam, John Joseph, Conchita Boyder, Ronda F Greaves.
Establishment of an external quality assurance program for serum
dihydrotestosterone. Accepted as a hot topic oral presentation at the53rd AACB Annual Scientific Meeting. The abstract was published in
the Clin Biochem Reviews 2015;36:S46.
Ronda F Greaves, Janne Pitkin, Chung Shun Ho, James Baglin,
Rodney W Hunt, Margaret R Zacharin. Hormone modelling in preterm
neonates: Establishment of serum steroid reference intervals by LCMS/MS. Accepted as an extended oral presentation at the 53 rd AACBAnnual Scientific Meeting. The abstract was also published in the Clin
Biochem Reviews 2015;36:S19.
A publication developing reference intervals using the “common”
calibrator piloted by the APFCB Harmonisation Working Group was
published in JCEM in 2015; DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1210/jc.20143681. This work developed mass spectrometry based reference
intervals for preterm neonatal serum for testosterone, 17OHP,
androstenedione, cortisol and cortisone.
RF Greaves, L Jolly, MF Hartmann, SA Wudy. Should we target set
our RCPAQAP material when there are gaps in the traceability chain?
Target assignment of 17-OHP, androstenedione, DHEA and DHT by
GC-MS/MS. Accepted as a poster presentation at the 53 rd AACBAnnual Scientific Meeting. The abstract was published in the Clin
Biochem Reviews 2015;36:S46.

11

Greaves RF, Ho CS, Hoad KE, Joseph J, McWhinney B, Gill JP, Koal
T, Fouracre C, Iu Y, Cooke B, Boyder C, Pham H, Jolly L.
Achievements and future directions of the APFCB harmonisation
project on serum testosterone. Clin Biochem Rev 2015. Manuscript
submitted November 2015 and currently under review.
A systematic review of the literature has been conducted to ascertain
the published reference intervals for MS based serum steroid assays.
This review, “Systematic review of serum steroid hormone reference
intervals for mass spectrometry methods”, has been registered withPROSPERO (CRD42015029637). Collation of the data is progressing
for publication and distribution to the APFCB MS working group in2016 for further input.
7. APFCB Chronic Kidney Disease (working group chaired by
Associate Prof Graham Jones who is also the APFCB Travelling
Lecturer for 2015 and 2016)
The key activities have been coupled with the opportunities provided
through the APFCB Travelling Lecture Programme. Associate Prof
Graham Jones delivered his lectures in Singapore, Vietnam, India,
China and Mexico in 2015.
Of the countries Associate Prof Graham Jones has visited there is agreat need for action in the area of CKD. In many laboratories,
creatinine assays are not standardised although it seems likely that
doctors are calculating the eGFR using smart phones or similar, basedon the assumption of standardisation. Similarly, while there appears to
be excellent co-operation between some laboratories and their local
clinical renal colleagues, there does not seem to be as much activity at
the national organisation level. Associate Prof Graham Jones hopesthat some of the presentations and discussions obtained through the
APFCB Travelling Lectureship may promote these activities.
A press release from KDIGO on 14th July 2015, KDIGO to Strengthen
Implementation Programs in Low and Middle Income Countries, may
provide opportunities for collaboration with clinical groups as theorganisation appears to have representatives from a number of AsiaPacific nations.

12III. Communications Committee (C-Comm)
Chair: Prof Praveen Sharma (India)
1. APFCB website
The APFCB website (www.apfcb.org) was launched on 1st Nov 2011
and is being maintained with regularly updated comprehensive
information on the organisation and activities of APFCB and its
member societies. Access is made available through the site to the ongoing scientific, educational and laboratory management programmesof APFCB, to the activities of communication & publications committee
and to the photo gallery of these events. It also serves well as a sourceof information for the APFCB Congress / regional meetings and future
events. APFCB e-News and annual reports are conveniently
published online on this platform making them readily available to all
the members. It also facilitates webinars related to clinical biochemistry
and laboratory medicine.
The year 2015 witnessed the on-line live telecast of the Vietnam CPC
in the month of June (6th June 2015) which was viewed by almost 200
people across the Asia-Pacific Region.
2. APFCB e-News:The APFCB e-News is published online on the APFCB web-site. This
has ensured wide reach of the e-News to all members at no additionalcost. As decided by the EB at its meeting in Singapore on 5th and 6th
September 2015, the APFCB e-News shall be published twice a year
commencing in 2016. The C-Comm has requested member societies
through their National Representatives to contribute annual activities
report for publication in the e-News.
.
3. Public Relations
A power point presentation on the APFCB, its members and its
activities was developed by Mr Martin Fuhrer, Corporate
Representative to the EB and is now being updated regularly by the
new Corporate member, Mr Alexander Wong since Martin Fuhrer’s
resignation from Siemens. This power point presentation is ready for
use at member society conferences and at regional and international
meetings to promote the APFCB.

13

IV. Congress and Conferences Committee (C-CC)
Chair: Joseph Lopez (Malaysia)
1. 14th APFCB Congress
The C-CC Chair has been in close contact with the Chair of theOrganising Committee of the 14th APFCB Congress on preparations
for the congress. The latest report from the OC is appended below.
The APFCB President and Chair C-CC visited Taipei on 24 Oct 2015
to confer with the Congress Organising Committee on preparations forthe 14th Congress. A report of this visit has been submitted to EB andthe COC by the Chair of C-CC (Please refer to Appendix 1). One of
the important points noted was that sponsorship from the major
vendors of diagnostic products was still not yet forthcoming.
2. APFCB auspices
The following conferences/courses have been granted APFCB
auspices:i.
EFLM-IFCC EuroMedLab, Paris, 21-25 June 2015
ii.
Chemical Pathology Course 2015 that was held on 06 June2015 in Ho Chi Minh City and on 09 June 2015 in Ha Noi,
Vietnamiii.
WASPaLM World Congress that was held in Cancun, Mexicofrom 18-21 November 2015
iv.
Cherry Blossom Symposium to be held in Seoul from 20-22
April 2016 in Seoulv.
College of Chemical Pathologists of Sri Lanka Annual Academic
Sessions from 4-5 March 2016
3. The Chair of the C-CC has written an article entitled “APFCB Auspicesof Meetings” for the 2015 APFCB e-News as a way of informing
learned societies in laboratory medicine and APFCB members of theopportunity to apply for auspices.
4. Turning Science into Caring (TSIC)
Abbott Laboratories has held TSIC meetings in the Asia-Pacific region
over the past few years in conjunction with the IFCC. The purpose of
these meetings is to bring laboratory and other healthcare
professionals together to exchange information on trends in laboratory
medicine. Following a discussion with a representative from Abbott at
the EuroMedLab in Milan in May 2013, the APFCB was invited to14become a partner of these meetings. An agreement to this effect was
signed between the APFCB and Abbott on 22 July 2013 which enables
the APFCB to be a partner and contribute to the planning of thescientific programme of TSIC meetings.
This year’s TSIC meeting was initially planned for Bangkok, 2-3
September 2015. However, due to the bombing that occurred in
Bangkok the TSIC meeting was held in Bali, Indonesia, 2-3 December
2015. The theme for this years’ TSIC meeting was: Elevating thestandard of patient care”. The APFCB was represented by Dr Elizabeth
Frank, Treasurer of APFCB.
5. Asia Pacific Federation for Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory
Medicine (APFCB)-Beckman Coulter (BC) Scientific Symposia
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam 8 October 2015
Jakarta, Indonesia 10 October 2015
Bangkok, Thailand 14 October 2015
The APFCB-BC Symposia was an educational series proposed by
Beckman for the purpose of raising the standard of laboratory medicine
within the region. Beckman had indicated that they were prepared toorganise, fund and promote the series of symposia in their selected
cities – Ho Chi Minh, Jakarta and Bangkok. Planning for the entire
event began in May 2015. Ms Ng Siew Bee from Beckman was thecoordinator of the activities and had discussions with Associate Prof
Sunil Sethi who represented the APFCB and Beckman Headquarters,
particularly Dr Jack Zakowski, Director of Scientific Affairs andProfessional Relations at Beckman Coulter. Dr Zakowski also holds
appointments within the Board of Directors at Clinical Laboratory
Standards Institute (CLSI) and College of American Pathologists(CAP). Dr Zakowski had agreed to participate in all three of the
APFCB–BC Symposia as a subject expert in the area of laboratory
standards, accreditation and the clinical value of specific biomarkers.
The series of APFCB-BC Symposia were held in hotels within the city
centre and the programme was usually a one-day activity with a seriesof talks from local experts, APFCB representative and BC expert.
The events were generally well received and participation rates were
between 70 -150 participants, who were a mix of laboratory
professional and technical staff as well as medical staff. The audience
was generally well engaged and there were lively Q&A sessions andpanel discussions as part of the planned activities. Overall, thescientific content was tailored in some ways to the needs and interestsof the local laboratories which helped maintain the interest. There was15

also a small exhibition area which featured BC equipment. This gave
the event a rather nice conference with exhibition atmosphere.
Each event was opened with formal introductions by the BC senior
management team, followed by Associate Prof Sunil Sethi
representing the APFCB. The APFCB hopes to continue to work with
Beckman and perhaps enshrine the APFCB-BC Symposia as a regularseries rather than only for this occasion.

Report prepared by Leslie Lai with contributions from Joseph Lopez, Sunil
Sethi, Endang Hoyaranda, Kiyoshi Ichihara, Tony Badrick, Praveen
Sharma, Ronda Greaves, Graham Jones and Woei-Horng Fang.
06.01.16

16

Appendix 1
Progress report of APFCB Congress 2016
APFCB President Leslie Lai and Dr. Joseph Lopez, Chair, APFCB C-CC met theOrganising Committee on Saturday 24th October 2015 to discuss the progress of
preparations for the 14th APFCB Congress to be held from 26th-29th November
2016, in Taipei. A power point presentation was made by Prof. Woei-HorngFang, Chair of the Congress Organising Committee (COC), Prof. Shu-Chu
Shiesh, Chair, Scientific Committee (SC) and other colleagues from the COC.
Also present were representatives from the professional conference organiser(PCO). The EB representatives considered that overall preparations appeared to
be on course.
The following are some key points of the progress:
1. Scientific Programme:a. There are 4 plenary lectures and 24 symposia and the speakers
and titles are in place.
b. Dr. Kuo, Director-General of Centres for Disease Control Taiwan,
has been invited to be the Keynote speaker with the title of his talkbeing “Laboratory Medicine in Cloud.”c. The abstracts submission system was opened in December 2015
and the closing date is 31 May 2016.
d. APFCB Travelling Lecturer, Dr. Graham Jones is one of the plenary
speakers.
e. Some APFCB national societies have not yet confirmed the themesof their talks and speakers and we are actively tracking them andwill reserve some rooms for late additions of symposia.
2. Taiwan Society of Laboratory Medicine (TSLM) accepted our invitation to
include their annual conference as a satellite meeting of the APFCBCongress. The time frame of this satellite meeting will be on 26th - 27th
November with the title “Asia-Pacific Chinese Conference of Clinical
Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine” and Mandarin will be used in thisconference. This satellite meeting is expected to attract more participantsfrom China, Hong Kong, Macao, as well as the bulk of local medical
technologists. An effort is being made to attract the local clinicalpathologists to participate in the congress.
3. Registration: USD 550 (same as Bali) for foreign participants; freeregistration for scholarship holders. Daily registration will be USD 100 andan extra payment is required for the banquet. The registration system will
be open in early 2016.
4. Corporate Sponsorship:a. There are 2 diamond sponsors – Roche and Siemens.
b. However, some of the well-known vendors who are APFCB
Corporate Members have yet to register their interest in the17congress. APFCB will assist the COC in contacting theseprospective sponsors.
c. Local sponsors will be actively contacted in the coming months.
Good local vendor support is expected because of the participationof the TSLM.
d. There are still slots available for industrial workshops and it isexpected that these will be taken up in the coming months by the
major vendors.
5. Venue: the venue of the congress will be the Taiwan International
Convention Centre (TICC). The entire building of the TICC is available forthe period of the APFCB Congress. The trade exhibition will be held at the
Taiwan World Trade Centre which is just across the road from the TICC.
TICC, TWTC and the Grand Hyatt are all within the vicinity of the iconic
101 Building and within walking distance of each other and metro stations.
6. Professional Conference Organiser (PCO):
a. The local Enjoy-PCO will act as the congress’s contact point. It will
manage everything, including registration, communication withspeakers and participants, accommodation arrangements, etc.
7. Social:a. The reception for the opening will be held at the TICC.
b. Packed lunch will be provided to all registered participants on eachday of the congressc. The congress banquet will be held at the Grand Hyatt hotel and will
be open to all registered participants for a fee. This venue can hold800 guests.
8. Promotions:a. The official web-site http://www.apfcbcongress2016.org/ will be
progressively updated.
b. It will be used for registrations and submission of abstracts.
c. A major promotional effort will be made at the IFCC General
Conference in Madrid.
9. We are ready to provide venues for meetings of the APFCB EB andcommittees, and the IFCC and its Divisions, Committees, if requested,and other joint meetings (e.g. APFCB-IFCC; APFCB-WASPaLM) that areheld in conjunction with the APFCB Congress.

Report prepared by Joseph Lopez (Chair of C-CC) with contributions from
Woei-Horng Fang (Chair of COC)

18