International Federationof Clinical Chemistry
and Laboratory Medicine
Advancing excellence inlaboratory medicine forbetter healthcare worldwide

www.ifcc.org

AnnualReport 2020

Highlights of the Year
• New Task Forces formed:- IFCC Task Force on COVID-19- Task Force on Global Newborn Screening (TF-NBS) - Joint Task Force of IFCC andInternational Society of Newborn Screening (ISNS)- Task Force on Global Lab Quality (TF-GLQ)- Task Force on Global eLearning/eAcademy (TF-GEL)• IFCC live webinars – 2020 Series - https://eacademy.ifcc.org/events/ifcc-live-webinarseries/
Topics:- COVID-19 Guidelines on Molecular, Serological, and Biochemical/Serological Testing- Advancing Internal and External Quality Assurance on a Global Scale- Expanding Newborn Screening Globally, Reducing Infant Mortality Through Early Diagnosis- Value and Impact of Laboratory Medicine in Patient Care: Developing the Evidence• IFCC-AACC Pearls, translation in Spanish
https://eacademy.ifcc.org/topics/c%C3%A1psulas-de-la-medicina-de-laboratorio-pearls/• e-Academy, open educational resources - http://eacademy.ifcc.org/• IFCC Flow Cytometry Course- March 9th -13th, 2020, Geneva (CH) - https://www.ifcc.org/media/478143/winter-schoolimmuno-flyer-2020.pdf• C-CMBC Courses- January 29th-31st 2020, Kuala Lumpur (MY) - 1st C-CMBC Advanced Course in MolecularDiagnostics- March 1st-7th, 2020, La Paz (BO) – The C-CMBC Beginner’s Course in Molecular Diagnostics-https://www.ifcc.org/media/478701/c-cmbc-course-bolivia_2020.pdf• DQCLM Workshop- January 10th-11th 2020, Lahore (PK) - Pakistan - IFCC Developing Quality Competencein Medical Laboratories (DQCML) - https://www.ifcc.org/media/478309/dqcml-workshop_
pakistan_amann_thomas_2020.pdf• IFCC Expert Database - http://www.ifcc.org/ifcc-education-division/experts/• Implement cooperation and agreements with IFCC Regional Federations and International
Organizations
Yearly programmes on hold due to COVID-19 pandemic:• IFCC VLP programme supported by Abbott - http://www.ifcc.org/ifcc-education-division/
emd-special-projects/• Roche/IFCC Travel Scholarships• IFCC Professional Scientific Programmes (PSEP/PMEP)• IFCC FEN - Foundation for Emerging Nations - http://www.ifccfoundation.org/• IFCC Distinguished Awards 2020, selected and announced, presentation ceremony
postponed.

2Index
Message from IFCC President______________________________________________________ 4
Executive Board___________________________________________________________________ 5
Treasurer Report__________________________________________________________________ 6
Corporate Members______________________________________________________________ 12
Committee on Congresses and Conferences (C-CC)________________________________ 14
Scientific Division (SD)____________________________________________________________ 18
Education and Management Division (EMD)________________________________________ 45
Communications and Publications Division (CPD)___________________________________ 59
Emerging Technologies Division (ETD)_____________________________________________ 67
Task Forces______________________________________________________________________ 71
FEN - Foundation for Emerging Nations ____________________________________________ 79
Federations______________________________________________________________________ 80• AFCB - Arab Federation of Clinical Biology_______________________________________ 80• AFCC - African Federation of Clinical Chemistry__________________________________ 83• APFCB - Asia-Pacific Federation of Clinical Biochemistry andLaboratory Medicine and Laboratory Medicine____________________________________ 84• COLABIOCLI - Latin-American Confederation of Clinical Biochemistry_______________ 88• EFLM – European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine_________ 93• NAFCC - North American Federation Of Clinical Chemistry & Laboratory Medicine ___ 100
Full Member Societies___________________________________________________________ 101
Affiliate Member Societies _______________________________________________________ 140

3

Message from the President of IFCC
With the initiation of our new strategic plan for 2020-2023, the IFCC has
made significant progress towards “advancing excellence in laboratory
medicine for better healthcare worldwide”. In 2020, we engaged in global
activities and employed innovative approaches to achieve our goals of
impacting healthcare delivery and patient outcomes, contributing to global
lab quality, becoming the largest provider of free distance learning in thefield of laboratory medicine, and aiding in the fight against the COVID-19
pandemic.
This past year, four new Taskforces were established to ensure the success of our strategicplan. First, the IFCC Taskforce on Global Newborn Screening was initiated to address thelack of newborn screening programs in developing countries by initiating and supporting suchprograms in these regions worldwide. This Taskforce is currently designing pilot programmes
in several countries, with the goal of eventually expanding further. Ultimately, these programs
will provide early diagnosis and enable treatment of newborns with various genetic metabolic
disorders, who otherwise would be unable to access these essential services.
The IFCC Taskforce on Global Lab Quality was also established in 2020 to assist clinicallaboratories in improving internal quality control and external quality assurance (IQC and EQA),
directly improving global lab quality. This group has begun to plan an international IQC andEQA programs, providing these free to developing countries as well as deploying training
and consulting teams for onsite IQC. The creation of a global reference interval consortium isalso underway, to support the IFCC’s efforts in achieving evidence-based regional and global
harmonization of reference intervals.
To further the IFCC’s goal of becoming the largest global contributor of free distance learningin the field of laboratory medicine, the IFCC Taskforce on Global eLearning/eAcademy wasestablished. In Fall 2020, this group organized and held a live monthly webinar series. The
Fall 2020 series was an extremely successful and truly international event, with each webinar
garnering an audience of 2500–3500 attendees for a total of over 10,000 participants in theseries from more than 100 counties around the world. A new monthly series began in January
2021 and will continue throughout the year, with leading experts presenting on an array oflaboratory medicine topics.
Last but not least, the first Taskforce established in 2020 was the IFCC Taskforce on COVID-19 tosummarize, critically review, and disseminate the most up-to-date, evidence-based information
about the novel coronavirus as well as provide recommendations regarding test implementation.
This included the formation of the IFCC Information Guide on COVID-19, an online documentused to share key information and resources with laboratory professionals around the world,which has since been updated on a biweekly basis. In October 2020, this group also publishedinterim guidelines based on available evidence, providing practical recommendations tolaboratories on molecular testing of SARS-CoV-2 infection, serological testing for antibodies
against SARS-CoV-2, as well as biochemical and hematological monitoring of COVID-19
patients. Based on these guidelines, the Taskforce provided a successful webinar as part of theFall 2020 series and also assisted in the planning of the IFCC Global Conference on COVID-19,
which took place in February 2021.
4

Reflecting on 2020, I would like to thank all the Taskforce members for their diligent work as
well as all our members who remain engaged and focused on advancing the field of laboratory
medicine. This past year posed unique challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but due toour efforts, the IFCC made invaluable strides towards our vision, and I know we are all eager tocontinue this momentum into 2021.
Prof. Khosrow Adeli

EXECUTIVE BOARD (EB)The IFCC Executive Board was not able to meet in person during 2020 but were very active, withmonthly virtual meetings throughout the year, and the minutes were posted on the IFCC Website.
While challenged by significant time zone differences and unpredictable internet service, theEB members were very productive in developing and implementing the new strategic plan for
2020-2023, as well managing the ongoing business of the IFCC.
The activities and achievements of the IFCC Committees, Working Groups and Task Forces,
and the IFCC Members are presented in this report, and it is an impressive amount of work,
performed by volunteers around the world, many of whom were also very busy providing
essential services during this pandemic.
The IFCC membership, as of December 31, 2020, included 94 Full Members, 17 Affiliate
Members and 47 Corporate Members. During 2020, two Full Member Societies joined: Myanmar
Medical Technologist Association (MMTA) and Iraqi Society for Molecular Biology and Genetics(ISMBG); and two Affiliate Member Societies joined: Sociedad Andaluza de Análisis Clínicos y
Medicina de Laboratorio (SANAC) – Spain, and Order of the Biochemists, Biologists, Chemists
in Romanian Health System (OBBCSSR) – Romania. We also welcomed six new Corporate
Members: Tosoh, Wuhan Life Original Biotech Joint Stock – Szybio, Megalab, LumiraDx,
Shenzhen YHLO Biotech and Instrumentation Laboratory.
2020 was the third year of my term as Secretary of the IFCC Executive Board and I would
like to thank all the IFCC officers, members and colleagues who I have worked with for theircooperation and assistance. It was unfortunate that the COVID pandemic prevented our inperson meetings/congresses and the opportunities to meet old friends and colleagues, and to
make new ones. The use of virtual platforms has been indispensable in allowing the IFCC tocontinue its important committee meetings and activities, and to provide member education,
and will no doubt become a part of our on-going mode of operation. However, I am sure we are
all looking forward to the resumption of in-person meetings and the opportunity to be together.
Special thanks to the IFCC Office staff in Milan (Paola Bramati, Silvia Cardinale and Silvia Colli
Lanzi) who have worked so hard to make this new virtual mode of operation work for all of us.
David Kinniburgh - Executive Board Secretary

5

TREASURER REPORT
During the third and last year of my second term as the IFCC treasurer, with the valuable help
and assistance of the IFCC office, the annual dues of Full, Affiliate and Corporate Members werereceived, the adherence of IFCC operating units to their allocated budgets were monitored anddetailed records of all transactions were kept, and reimbursements were processed immediately
after the receipt of the claims from the IFCC office. The 2021 budget requests of the IFCC
Functional units were received and the expected 2021 budget was prepared and submitted to
the IFCC Executive Board for approval. The IFCC functional Units were informed about their
allocated 2021 budgets after receiving the approval of the EB.
The annual accounts and financial actions in 2020 were submitted to the external independent
auditor to be reviewed in order to finalize the actual income and expenses at 31st December
2020.
Close collaboration was achieved with the IFCC investment bank (Credit Suisse) to optimise thefinancial return on IFCC investments.

1. COMPARISON OF 2020 PROPOSED BUDGET WITH ACTUALS AT 31st DECEMBER 2020
The 2020 budget was expected to be closed with a deficit of CHF -904 251. Instead, it wasclosed with a surplus of CHF 99 675,61 (Fig. 1). The main reason for this difference was dueto the decrease in expected expenses because working meetings of the IFCC Functional Units
mostly were not held physically during the pandemic.
Budget 2020

Actual 2020

CHF

CHF

Total Operational revenues & financial income

1,253,100.00

794,025.92

Total Operational costs & financial charges

2,157,351.00

694,350.31

Profit (-loss) for the year

-904,251.00

99,675.61

Summary

Figure 1. 2020 proposed budget versus to actual at 31st December 2020.

6

2. TOTAL OPERATIONAL REVENUES AND FINANCIAL INCOME
The actual total operational revenues and financial income were CHF 794,025.92 (Fig. 2).
Budget 2020

Actual 2020

CHF

CHF

1 2:04:00 Full members (National Societies)

175.000,00

186.762,63

1 3:04:00 Corporate members

250.000,00

331.721,87

1 4:04:00 Affiliate members

4.500,00

7.980,90

1 6:02:01 Income from CLSI royalties

2.000,00

2.333,94

1 6:38:01 Revenue for ICHCLR secretarial support

9.000,00

4.263,28

1 6:39:01 Revenue for ICHCLR sub-account40.000,00

12.798,84

1 7:02:24 WorldLab Congress Seoul 2020

500.000,00

0,00

1 7:03:24 EuroMedLab Congress Munich 2021

0,00

0,00

1 7:04:10 IFCC virtual Conference "Critical role of Clinical Lab in COVID-19 pandemic"

0,00

0,00

REVENUES & INCOME

0,00

12.300,00

1 7:07:03 EMD Symposium - WorldLab Seoul 2020 - Abbott

19.000,00

18.993,00

1 8:00:01 Income for Scientific Division (SD) JRC IRMM

40.000,00

52.583,85

0,00

4.905,70

1 7:07:01 APFCB Congress Jaipur 2019 share

456,00

1 8:05:11 Income for Commutability in Metrological Traceability (WG-CMT)
1 8:05:20 Support to WG-APO activites
1 9:02:10 IFCC-AACC Pearls
1 9:05:01 Abbott VLP sponsorship

0,00

11.012,40

45.000,00

48.834,65

1 9:05:04 Income for C-CB support (scorecard study)

0,00

0,00

1 10:00:01 Elsevier Support - AACC stand & royalties

3.000,00

0,00

1 10:00:02 Income from Com. Publ. div. (CPD) Elsevier endorsement - incl ADV

30.000,00

37.129,66

1 12:01:01 Yashraj Dist Clinical Chemist Award

10.500,00

0,00

1 12:01:02 Siemens - Henry Wishinsky Award dist Intnl services

10.500,00

0,00

1 12:01:03 Abbott Award for dist. contibution in education

10.500,00

0,00

1 12:01:04 Abbott Award for significant contribution to molecular diagnostics

10.500,00

0,00

1 12:01:05 Sekisui Award for Lab Med and Patient care

10.500,00

0,00

1 12:01:06 Award CLSI - NIST Seoul 2020

7.500,00

0,00

0,00

0,00

1 12:01:08 Hytest Award for contr to cardiovascular diagnostic

10.500,00

0,00

1 12:01:09 Gerard Siest- Biologie prospective Award

10.500,00

0,00

1 12:01:10 Yashraj Dist women scientist Award

10.500,00

0,00

1 12:02:00 Abbott Univants Project

23.000,00

23.000,00

1 13:05:03 Income for Roche travel scholarships

21.000,00

0,00

100,000,00

1 18:01:02 Realized profits on investments

0,00

37.087,40

1 18:01:03 Unrealized profits on investments

0,00

0,00

1 19:80:02 Overhead on sponsorship projects

0,00

1.861,80

1 20:01:03 Profits on exchange

0,00

0,00

1.253.100,00

794.025,92

1 12:01:07 Young investigator Award - IFCC

1 18:00:00 FEN expenses re-imbursed

TOTAL REVENUES & INCOME

Figure 2. The expected and actual INCOME at 31st December 2020.

7

3. IFCC MEMBERSHIP DUES
The income of IFCC from the annual dues of Full, Affiliate and Corporate Members collectedduring 2020 is shown in Fig. 3. Thanks to all member Societies and Corporate members that
supported IFCC throughout the years. Their continuous contribution have made possible theaccomplishment of numerous IFCC tasks and projects. IFCC is grateful to the IVD industry for
their support and active participation in the IFCC scientific events. We also thank the members
for their loyalty and attention in paying dues at the start of the year, which helps the cash flow.
Dues

CHF

Full members

186,762.63

Corporate members

331,721.87

Affiliate members
Total

7,980.90
526,465.40

Figure 3. IFCC membership dues collected in 2020.

4. IFCC MEETINGS INCOME PARTITIONIFCC meetings’ revenues are not a regular yearly income. The yearly income of IFCC fromthe recent meetings (EuroMedLab 2019 Barcelona, EuroMedLab 2017 Athens, WorldLab 2017
Durban and shares from the regional federations’ meetings) subdivided by the frequency of theevents is indicated below (Fig. 4). There is no meeting income from WorlLab 2020 Seoul since
it has been postponed to 2022.).
INCOMEPARTITION

YEAR AVAILABILITY

WordLab 2017(Durban): CHF 189.429

3 years

CHF 63.143

EuroMedLab2017 (Athens):
CHF 774.318 – 155.737 (EFLM share) = CHF 618.581

2 years

CHF 309.290

APFCB Jaipur, 2019 share: CHF 12.300

2 years

CHF 6.150

COLABIOCLI Congress Punta del Este – 2017
CHF 2.200

2 years

CHF 1.100

EuroMedLab (Barcelona) 2019:
CHF 2.262.277 – 569.425 (EFLM)=CHF 1.692.852

2 years

CHF 846.426

Figure 4. IFCC meetings income.
The income of IFCC from the membership dues and annual meetings income (excluding
sponsorships funds and other revenues) in 2020:
CHF 526 465 (dues) + CHF 846 426 + CHF 6 150 (annual meetings income) = CHF 1 379 041

5. SPONSORSHIPDivisions and some Functional Units raise sponsorships funds which give them a certain
flexibility in conducting projects. These sponsorships funds are used for the specific projects indue time. The unspent sponsorship funds are carried over to the next years. The total amount ofsponsorships funds available for specific projects at 31st December 2020 to be carried to 2021
is CHF 868 531.
8

6. TOTAL OPERATIONAL COSTS AND FINANCIAL CHARGES
The actual total operational expenses in 2020 were CHF 694 350 (Fig.5).
IFCC GENERAL EXPENES - 2020 Budget to 31st December 2020 Actuals
Actual expenses
including sponsorship
5. Organisations Affiliated w/ IFCC

68.125

6. IFCC Int/Reg Organisations

15.854

7. IFCC Congresses and Conferences Committee (C-CC)

14.567

8. IFCC Scientific Division (SD)16.714

9. IFCC Education and Management Division (EMD)

76.251

10. IFCC Communication Publication Division (CPD)

63.59054

11. IFCC Emerging Technologies Division (ETD)
13. IFCC Special Projects

48.776

14. IFCC Statutes & Rules

20.538

15. IFCC Financial Report

105.481

16. IFCC Organisational Matters242.783

19. IFCC Executive Board (EB)21.618GENERAL TOTAL

694.350

Figure 5. IFCC GENERAL EXPENSES-2020

9

7. CASH BALANCE AT CREDIT SUISSE ON 31 DECEMBER 2020
Total amount of cash available on December 31st, 2020 including sponsorship funds (CHF 868
531) when converted into CHF currency is CHF 2, 206, 528.37.
CHF
1,355,255.33
USD
31,396.54
EUR761,024.01
The total amount CHF 2, 206, 528.37

Figure 6. Cash Balance on December 31st, 2020.

10

8. IFCC INVESTMENT AT CREDIT SUISSE IN 2020
The important issues of the agreement with Credit Swiss are outlined as below:• Investment strategy: Income oriented• Risk Profile: Moderate• Risk Budget: Moderate• Reporting currency: CHF (with investments in three currencies: CHF, EUR, USD)
Ticket fee model: 0.20% for the safekeeping fee (no investment fee).
Return of the IFCC investments at CS between 31.12.2019 to 31.12.2020 is shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7. Credit Suisse Investments between December 31st, 2019 and December 31st, 2020.
Tomris Ozben, Treasurer

11

CORPORATE MEMBERS’ REPORT
Rolf Hinzmann, MD, PhD, Clinical Pathologist (Roche)
Corporate Representative at IFCC Executive Board (2nd term 2018-2020)
In 2020 IFCC was pleased to welcome Tosoh (Japan), Wuhan Life Original Biotech Joint Stock- Szybio (China), Megalab (Georgia, Caucasus region), LumiraDx (UK), Shenzhen YHLO Biotech(China) and Instrumentation Laboratory (USA) as new Corporate Members. Regrettably, in 2020
the following Corporate Members left IFCC: SCL Healthcare (South Korea), PPD (USA), Zhejang
Kuake Biotechnology (China), Timedico (Denmark), and ADX Neuroscience (Belgium), 3 of themafter less than 3 years of membership. By the end of 2020, the total number of IFCC’s Corporate
Members was 49. Interest in new IFCC Corporate Membership comes mainly from China (9Corporate Members, followed by UK, 8 Corporate Members, USA, 7 Corporate Members,
Germany and Japan, 4 Corporate Members each). Not all IFCC Corporate Members are
manufacturers but several are distributors. A hospital service provider (from Georgia, Caucasus
region) and a hospital (from Sri Lanka) are Corporate Members as well. In 2020, Corporate
Members contributed with annual fees of ~300.000 CHF to 62.5 % of IFCC’s total direct annual
income from its members (which comprise National Societies and Affiliate Member Societies aswell). On top of this, IFCC received sponsorship for scientific or educational projects, awards,
travel of students and lecturers (together ~180.000 CHF), and congresses (e.g. contribution to
WoldLab 2022 so far ~1.4 m CHF).
Over the past years, IFCC has seen an erosion in Corporate Membership and the necessity tomake IFCC more attractive for Corporate Members became evident. As a consequence, theTask Force Corporate Members (TF-CM), a new task force for and by the Corporate Members has been installed. Its mission is twofold: On the one hand, the task forces supports that
Corporate Members’ interests are better addressed within IFCC, i.e. better representation of
Corporate Members, more easy discussion among Corporate Members, identification of common topics and interaction with / direct report to the IFCC Executive Board. On the other hand,a major theme of the future work of this task force will be how to increase the engagement ofCorporate Members in IFCC since most Corporate Members are not actively involved in IFCC
activities. (See the respective website for details of the Task Force.)
The Corporate Members make additional important contributions to IFCC activities: Numerous
delegates from Corporate Members are actively engaged in most of the Working Groups andCommittees in all IFCC divisions and in their Executive Committees, either as full members or
as corresponding members, as well as in the Congresses & Conferences Committee.
Here is the contact information for Corporate Representatives who are members of the Executive
Committees of IFCC’s 4 divisions and the Congresses & Conferences Committee. Please feel
free to reach out to them in case you have questions:• Scientific Division: Michael Rottmann (Roche) (1st term March 2020-2023)• Emerging Technologies Division: This division has two Corporate Representatives:
Peng Yin (Abbott) (2nd term 2021-2023) and Markus Roessler (Roche) (1st term 20212023)• Education & Management Division: André Ziegler (Roche) (2nd term 2021-2023)• Communications & Publications Division: Tricia Ravalico (Abbott) (2nd term 20212023),• Congresses & Conferences Committee: Cheryl Jackson (Beckman Coulter) (2nd term
2021-2023).
The following persons are Corporate Members of the respective Congress Organizing
12Committees (COCs):• IFCC / WorldLab 2022, Seoul, South Korea: Douglas Chung (Abbott)• IFCC / EuroMedLab 2021, Munich, Germany: Abir Alhelou (Abbott)• IFCC-EFLM WorldLab + EuroMedLab 2023, Rome, Italy: Angel de la Fuente (Roche)
The next Corporate Members Meeting will be held during AACC, (currently scheduled for
September 26-30, 2021, in Atlanta, Georgia) and I would like to encourage all members to takepart in the meeting. The respective meeting details will be communicated later since due to thecoronavirus pandemic itineraries might need to be adapted.
Since 2020 was the last year of my 2nd term as Corporate Representative in the IFCC Executive
Board, I would like to summarize the major points we have achieved together as Corporate
Members over the past 6 years:• Creating the Task Force Corporate Members to better serve the needs of industry• Bringing more Corporate Members into Committees, Working Groups and Task Forces• Assuring compliance of IFCC and Corporate Members with the MedTech Europe Code• Increasing opportunities for dialog between the IFCC Executive Board and the Corporate
Members• Maintaining Corporate Membership fees and conference sponsorship fees constantI thank all Corporate Members and all IFCC officers, in particular those on the Executive Board,for the engaged and constructive support that I have received. I am glad to hand over to the
new Corporate Representative who took over in the beginning of 2021, Joseph Passarelli from
Roche. The new chair of the Task Force Corporate Members is Tricia Ravalico. I wish both ofthem success in all their endeavours to strengthen the role of Corporate Members within IFCC.
Rolf Hinzmann, Corporate Members Representative

13

COMMITTEE ON CONGRESSES AND CONFERENCES (C-CC)
The thirty-seventh (37th) meeting of the IFCC Executive Board Committee on Congresses andConferences was held virtually on October 21, 2020.
There were several membership changes to the C-CC during 2020. Full Member T. Zima having
completed his second term was replaced by P. Laitinen. Corresponding Members E. Frank and
O. Maguire resigned at the end of 2019. New Corresponding Members to the C-CC as of 2020
included J. Kumalawati, A. Buño Soto and A. Cano Huizar.
The first terms for C. Jackson (Corporate Member) and M. Blanes González (Full Member) expiredat the end of 2020. Both individuals agreed to serve a second term and the recommendations fortheir appointment for a second term (2021 – 2023) have been approved by the IFCC Executive
Board.
The second term for J. Wesenberg as Chair of the C-CC ends at the end of 2020. The IFCC
EB has approved the appointment of P. Laitinen as Chair for a first term (2021 – 2023). J.
Wesenberg has been appointed as Consultant to the C-CC for 2021.
With P. Laitinen moving from Full Member to Chair, there will be an open Full Member position
for a first term (2021 – 2023). The IFCC EB approved a call to National Presidents / National
Representatives of IFCC Member National Societies for applicants to this open position. After
review of the applications, the following recommendations were submitted for approval by the
IFCC Executive Board: New Full Member, First Term (2021 – 2023) Antonio Buno Soto (Spain) andNew Corresponding Members – Sarah Robinson (United Kingdom), Christos Tsatsanis (Greece)and Aylin Sepici Dincel (Turkey). The IFCC Executive Board approved these recommendations
in early January 2021. P. Laitinen will contact the applicants to determine their acceptance of
these appointments.

International Congresses of Clinical Chemistry & Laboratory Medicine(WorldLab)

IFCC ICCCLM (WorldLab) Seoul, Korea 2020 (May 24-28)- Postponed 2022 (June 26-30)
This Congress was postponed on account of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Congress was
subsequently rescheduled to January 6 – 10, 2021. With the ongoing global pandemic andassociated travel restrictions, this Congress has been rescheduled to June 26 – 30, 2022.
Adjustments to the scientific program will made as required.
IFCC ICCCLM (WorldLab) Rome, Italy 2023 (May 21-25)
Congress Chair: Prof. Sergio Bernardini
The XXV IFCC WorldLab / XXV IFCC-EFLM EuroMedLab Rome 2023 will be held in Rome from21 to 23 May 2023. The venue is already confirmed and blocked: Roma Convention Center La
Nuvola. A presentation and an Italian Farewell Party planned for WorldLab 2020 Seoul has been
postponed. Promotion will also occur at EuroMedLab 2021 Munich. The COC and the SPC
have been appointed. The general timetable for the congress has been established. The COC
and SPC are expected to meet when conditions allow.
IFCC ICCCLM (WorldLab) 2026)
The call for bids to host WorldLab 2026 has been postponed on account of the need to revise
the ICCCLM Congress Guidelines. The revisions have been completed and were approved by
the EB on September 17, 2020. The C-CC is waiting for the EB to decide when the call for bids
to host WorldLab 2026 will be sent.

Regional Congresses of Clinical Chemistry & Laboratory Medicine

APFCB, Sydney, Australia, 2022 (October 15-18)
Congress Chair: Helen Martin
It is extremely unlikely that the Sydney 2022 meeting will go ahead as an APFCB meeting.
AACB has been advised that the risk to delegate attendance is too great with Seoul only a few
months before. APFCB has been asked by IFCC Exec to talk with the KSCC about WorldLab
14

being a joint IFCC/APFCB/KSCC meeting; this is yet to happen but will soon.
A major issue for AACB’s decision was that although profits are split between hostingorganisations in a defined manner, losses would be completely borne by AACB and based on
advice from the Sydney Convention centre and others they are not willing to take that risk.
It is highly likely (although needs agreement of Council) that APFCB Sydney will shift to 2024
and KL to 2026.
EuroMedLab, Barcelona, Spain, 2019 (May 18 - 23)
Congress Chair: Dra. Imma Caballé
The Final Report and the results of the Delegate Survey were sent to the members of the C-CC
in June 2019. This Congress was a huge success from all aspects.
Thirty-six percent (1352 / 3720) of the delegates completed the Delegate Survey. A few minor
issues with the electronic tracking of responses were discovered and corrected. Overall thesurvey generated very useful information.
EuroMedLab, Munich, Germany, 2021 (May 16 – 20) - Postponed 2021 (November 28 –December 2)
Congress Chair: Dr. Karl Lackner
Planning for this congress continued as required despite the COVID-19 pandemic. The programis close to complete. Sponsorships and the Exhibition are well in line with expectations. Becauseof the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, this Congress has been rescheduled to November 28 –December 2, 2021.
EuroMedLab, Rome, Italy 2023 (May 21-25)
See above - IFCC ICCCLM (WorldLab) Rome, Italy 2023 (May 21-25)
A separate EuroMedLab will not be held in 2023.
EuroMedLab, 2025
The call for bids to host EuroMedLab 2025 has been postponed. Like the revisions to the
ICCCLM Congress Guidelines by the IFCC Executive Board, it is expected that there will becomparable revisions to the EuroMedLab Congress Guidelines. The dates for the expected
revisions and the call for bids to host EuroMedLab 2025 have not been determined.
COLABIOCLI, Panama City, Panama, (September 17 – 20) 2019
Congress Chair: Lcda. Jovanna Borace
The final report for this congress indicated the success of this congress from all points of view.
COLABIOCLI, León, Mexico 2022 (March 23 – April 2)
Congress Chair: Dr. Marie Jezebel Vite Casanova
The COC and the congress location have been determined. Initial planning for the scientificprogram is underway.
AFCB, Beirut, Lebanon, 2021 (May 27 – 29)
Congress Chair: Dr. Christian Haddad
Planning for the congress has been delayed on account of the recent events in Beirut (theexplosion) and Lebanon (financial collapse). The congress location has not been decided.
There is a willingness to go on with the congress, and if travelling and meeting restrictions arestill in place, the congress format may change to virtual or a hybrid of on-site and virtual.
AFCC, Lusaka, Zambia, 2021 (September 23 – 25)
Congress Chair: Mr. Victor Daka
No report received.
JW presented the report for this Congress. All appeared to be in order.

IFCC Specialised Conferences

IFCC - Roche Diagnostics Bergmeyer ConferenceThis conference has not been held since 2016. The cause for the postponement of thisconference is related to concerns with respect to the various Codes of Ethical Business Practice.
The C-CC is not aware of any recent discussions regarding the future of this event.
IFCC – Abbott “Turning Science into Caring” Symposium
15

The program was last held in China and India in 2018. There has been concerns with respect tothe various Codes of Ethical Business Practice. There has been no report of recent discussions
within Abbott regarding the future of this event.
IFCC Virtual Conference - February 15 – 17, 2021
“Critical Role of Clinical Laboratories in the COVID-19 Pandemic”
This is the first of perhaps an ongoing series of IFCC virtual conferences.

Congress Guidelines and Other Documents

Review with revisions as required must be completed every three years or earlier if
required.
Auspices Guidelines and Application Forms
current versions May 2020 and June 2020
ICCCLM Congress Guidelines and Application Form – current versions May 2019
A revised version of the guidelines document has been approved for use only for WorldLab
2026 and this revised version is not posted to the website.
EuroMedLab Congress Guidelines and Application Form – current versions May 2019
It is expected that guidelines document will be revised by the IFCC and EFLM Executive Boards
for use with EuroMedLab 2025.
Guidance for National and International Congresses – current version May 2019
ICCCLM and EuroMedLab Congress – Evaluation and Scores Template – current version
May 2019
This template is present as Form A in the ICCCLM and EuroMedLab Guidelines documents.
Scientific Program Guidelines for ICCCLM (WorldLab) – current version May 2019
Scientific Program Guidelines for EuroMedLab – current version August 2017
Review was postponed until 2020 to address any deficiencies or potential improvements basedon the application of the guidelines to EuroMedLab 2019 Barcelona. Prof. Eric Kilpatrick,
Scientific Programme Chair for EuroMedLab 2019 Barcelona submitted to the C-CC suggested
revisions for this document. After consideration, the C-CC submitted suggested revisions to
the IFCC EB that will also require consultation with the EFLM EB. Once finalized, any approved
revisions will need to be considered for the Scientific Program Guidelines for ICCCLM (WorldLab).
Satellite Meeting Guidelines for an IFCC-sponsored Congress / Conference – current
version May 2019
IFCC Guidelines for Compliance with Applicable Codes of Ethical Business Practice –current version May 2019

Congresses/ Conferences with IFCC Auspices2014 – 40 events
2015 – 45 events
2016 – 70 events2017 – 55 events2018 – 76 events
2019 – 82 events
2020 – 52 – decrease attributed to COVID-19
The significant development in 2020 was the availability of IFCC auspices for IFCC Corporate
Member events.

IFCC General Conference

The date and location of the 14th IFCC General Conference is yet to be determined.

16

Other Business

IFCC WorldLab and IFCC-EFLM EuroMedLab Schedule
Currently WorldLab occurs every 3 years and EuroMedLab occurs every 2 years.
This scheduling creates two problems. The first is the decreased revenue from a WorldLabthat occurs outside of Europe in the same year as a EuroMedLab, e.g., WorldLab Durban and
EuroMedLab Athens in 2017. The other is the lack of a major revenue generating Congress
every few years, e.g., 2018, 2022 and 2024.
To address the first problem – combine WorldLab and EuroMedLab in Europe when both arescheduled to occur in the same year – this suggestion has been essentially adopted, e.g.,
WorldLab / EuroMedLab Rome 2023.
To address the other problem, the C-CC has submitted to the IFCC EB a recommendation tochange scheduling for WorldLab to every 2 years such that WorldLab occurs in even number
years and EuroMedLab occurs in the odd numbered years.

Thirty-eighth (38th) Meeting of the C-CC

The proposal to hold the 38th meeting of the C-CC in association with EuroMedLab 2021
Munich, May 24 – 28 was accepted. This decision may need to be revisited based on the datechange to late in the year.
James Wesenberg, C-CC Chair

17

SCIENTIFIC DIVISION (SD)
During 2020, the following members served on the SD Executive Committee: Philippe Gillery(France) (Chair), Christa Cobbaert (the Netherlands) (Vice-Chair), Joseph Passarelli (UnitedStates) (Secretary), Barnali Das (India), Konstantinos Makris (Greece), Mario Plebani (Italy)(members) and Michael Rottmann (Germany) (corporate representative). Six representatives ofInternational Organizations are invited to attend the SD meetings as consultants or observers:
Ian Young (JCTLM), Heinz Schimmel (JRC), Karen Phinney (NIST), Chris Burns (NIBSC) andYang Zhen (NIFDC), as well as Greg Miller (ICHCLR). Several virtual meetings were held during2020 due to travel restrictions caused by the pandemic: July 1 and 10, September 10 and 15,
and December 7.
Relationship with International Organizations
The SD continues to pursue the expansion of its activities to collaborate with internationalorganizations to promote the implementation of the concept of traceability in laboratory medicine
and the implementation of reference measurement systems.
• Joint Committee on Traceability in Laboratory Medicine (JCTLM)
The JCTLM continues its work, which is available for review on its database at www.bipm.org/jctlm.
The following annual report summarizes 2020 activities of the JCTLM.
Governance:
Dr. Ian Young completed his second year as Chair of the JCTLM Executive Committee, and
Dr. Gary Myers and Dr. Anja Kessler continued as representatives from IFCC to the JCTLM
Executive Committee. Dr. Elvar Theodorsson was appointed to succeed Dr. Graham Beastall
as chair of the Working Group on Traceability: Education and Promotion.
JCTLM Membership:
The Secretariat completed the 5 year review process for JCTLM Review teams’ membershipwhich resulted in the reappointment of 75% of the review teams’ members who were contacted.
There were currently 60 experts contributing to the twelve JCTLM review teams, amongst which
ten were new members appointed during the year.
JCTLM Database:
Database Content:• 258 available certified reference materials• 208 reference measurement methods or procedures• 196 reference measurement services
The JCTLM 2020 nomination cycle for certified reference materials, reference measurement
procedures and calibration laboratories that provide reference measurement services forlaboratory medicine and clinical chemistry closed May 2020. The various Review Teams
completed their respective reviews of the nominations in their areas of responsibility and theresults were reviewed for approval at a meeting of the JCTLM Database WG in December 2020.
There were 70 new nominations including 41 materials, 13 methods and 16 services, as well as
six outstanding nominations from the previous year that had been distributed for consideration
to seven JCTLM review teams in 2020.
JCTLM WG on Traceability Education and Promotion:
JCTLM Newsletter:
The JCTLM newsletter for 2020 can be downloaded at https://www.bipm.org/utils/common/
pdf/JCTLM/JCTLM-Newsletter-2020.pdf
An additional special newsletter summarizing developments in relation to COVID can be foundat https://www.bipm.org/utils/common/pdf/JCTLM/JCTLM-Newsletter-2020-COVID-19.pdf.
JCTLM Meetings
1-2 December, 2020: JCTLM Database WG Meeting and JCTLM WG TEP, via Zoom.
3-4 December 2020: JCTLM Executive Committee Meeting, via Zoom.
18

Working Group 1 (GUM):
Dr. Martin J.T. Milton is the Chairman of the JCGM. Dr. Graham White is acting as IFCC
representative.
Correspondence was received requesting approval and / or comments to the Final Draft
of GUM-6: (formerly numbered JCGM 103): Guide to the expression of uncertainty inmeasurement ‐ Developing and using measurement models. Previously the SD provided
comments to an earlier version and these responses can be found along with the Final
Draft of GUM‐6 at the following location on the JCGM webpages: https://www.bipm.org/cc/
AllowedDocuments.jsp?cc=JCGM. The deadline for submission was November 10, 2020.
Comments received from all Member Organizations were discussed at the next meeting of
the JCGM Plenary which was planned for 7th December 2020 (Visio conference) with thehope to find a consensus as to whether this Final Draft of GUM‐6 can be published.
In principal, the SD approves the publication of the Final Draft of GUM-6.
Working Group 2 (VIM):
Professor Gunnar Nordin is acting as IFCC representative. The fourth edition of theInternational Vocabulary of Metrology (VIM4) Working Draft (WD), as approved by JCGM/WG2 at the end of the June 2020 meeting, and then updated according to the input fromthe Focus Groups that were established afterwards has been accomplished. Also comments
received from WG2 members after the June 2020 meeting were taken into account.
For ease of comparison, the changes with respect to the VIM3 were highlighted with yellow
background for easier comparison:• the bibliographical references were highlighted with red text;• for avoiding ambiguities, the references to the identifiers of entries of previous VIM editions
have been removed.
Some things are still to do, and in particular:• French text;• introductory texts;• possible revision of the organization in chapters;• references to VIM3 (and previous editions?) entries.
Joint Research Center (JRC)
Close collaboration with JRC continues through a number of joint ventures involving SD
Committees and Working Groups. The status of specific JRC reference materials is mostly
covered under the respective Cs and WGs. Most notable are Certified Reference Materials(CRMs) for enzymes, autoimmune disorders, proteins, Thalassemia, and apolipoproteins.
• Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI)
An updated list of joint CLSI/IFCC documents is available on the IFCC web site at: http://
www.ifcc.org/index.asp?cat=Publications&scat=CLSI_(Clin_Lab_Stand_Inst)_-_IFCC_Joint_
Projects&rif=6&dove=1.
The proposal to update the CLSI EP28 guidance document on reference ranges to reflect
recent advances from IFCC C-RIDL and other content was not accepted due to the very large
estimated size of the revised document. Instead, CLSI issued a call for nominations for thefollowing document revision committees to essentially replace EP28:• EP44—Establishing Reference Intervals, 4th Ed.
• EP45—Verifying Reference Intervals in a Medical Laboratory, 4th Ed.
• National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)NIST continues to undertake a large number of projects, many of which are of considerable
interest to IFCC. The NIST website (www.nist.gov) can provide information on materials andservices available today.
The most relevant projects to the IFCC and SD in 2020 were:• cardiac troponin I•

19• human insulin-like Growth Factor 1• urine albumin• potential standards for COVID• National Institute of Biological Standards and Controls (NIBSC)
Close collaboration with NIBSC continues through a number of joint ventures involving SD
Committees and Working Groups.
However, NIBSC has been heavily involved in the UK and global response to Covid19 since
February/March 2020. Many work programmes are on hold until further notice, but medicinestesting activities and standardization activity continues.
International Standards established:• 1st WHO Reference Reagent for Anti-Malaria (Plasmodium vivax) human plasma• 2nd WHO International Standard Insulin-like growth factor-1• 6th WHO International Standard for human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG)• 1st WHO reference reagent for anti-HPA-15b IgG antibodies• 1st WHO IS for Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) Nucleic Acid Amplification Techniques (NAT)• 1st WHO IS for West Nile Virus (WNV) RNA for Nucleic Acid Amplification Techniques (NAT)
In addition to this work, two important International Standards will be established - WHO
International Standards for COVID-19 (for rapid submission – Dec 2020):• SARS-CoV-2 RNA standard.
• SARS-CoV-2 antibody standard.
• European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFLM)
The EFLM Science Committee and SD leadership once again agreed there should be close
liaison and communication between the two groups. Professor Eric Kilpatrick is the EFLM
SC chair. His third term is scheduled to conclude at the end of 2021. The Science Committee
is responsible for scientific matters within EFLM and projects which further the scientificdevelopment of EFLM (except those specifically related to quality management, which are theresponsibility of the Quality Management Committee). Activities of the Committee particularly
focus on promotion of research that translates the scientific results of clinical chemistry andlaboratory medicine to clinical applications and improves patient outcomes through theappropriate use and interpretation of laboratory data in clinical practice. Within the EFLM
SC, there are working groups on cardiac biomarkers, biological variation, test evaluation,
personalized laboratory medicine and a number of others but the consensus of the SD is thatthese activities do not overlap with ours. Professor Philippe Gillery (SD chair) has been incontact with the chair of the EFLM SC. Approaches to avoid overlap and work collaboratively
continue to be discussed and explored.
A new Task Force has been established to address the IVDR that goes into effect in May 2022:“EFLM Task Force on European Regulatory Affairs (TF-ERA)”. Professors Michael Neumaier
and Christa Cobbaert are interim co-chairs. TF-ERA is a multi-national Working Group
interconnecting with diagnostic and clinical societies to assist in smooth transition of laboratory
tests during the implementation phase of the EU IVDR.
• World Health Organization (WHO)The WHO meeting occurs each autumn. Professor Philippe Gillery attends and participates as
the liaison from the SD. Dr. Chris Burns is also a full member of the WHO Expert Committee
on Biological Standardization (ECBS). The focus is primarily on public health and emerging
pathogens. Much of the activities of ECBS are not relevant to the IFCC. However, there was acall for public comment with respect to the WHO Model List of in Vitro Diagnostics - https://www.who.int/medical_devices/diagnostics/selection_in-vitro/selection_in-vitro-meetings/
sage-ivd-2nd-meeting/en/. Prof. Sverre Sandberg was selected to represent the IFCC to the
WHO on this document. The WHO will issue recommendations coming from comments from allparties after review by the advisory panel and a 3rd version will be prepared.
As mentioned previously, the WHO has been almost completely focused on COVID-19 in 2020and for the time being until the pandemic situation subsides.
20Congresses (WorldLab, Regional and other congresses):
The SD made the following presentations:
American Association of Clinical Chemistry (AACC) Annual meeting
December 13 – 7, 2020 – held virtually due to COVID-19 pandemic:
Title: How the IFCC Scientific Division Improves Standardization in Laboratory Medicine
Chair / Moderator: Professor Philippe Gillery; Speakers: Vincent Delatour, PhD, LNE Standardization / Harmonization of Procalcitonin Assays: Are We There Yet?; Guido Freckmann,
MD - Standardizing Traceability and Analytical Performance of Continuous Glucose Monitoring
Systems; Yesim Ozarda, MD, Uludag University

Activities of Committees and Working Groups
The Committees (Cs), which are theme-oriented, carry out much of the scientific and professional
activities of the SD. Their work is often in close collaboration with other international organizations.
For more specific tasks, the activities are usually accomplished through Working Groups (WGs).
 Committees• C-Nomenclature, Properties and Units (C-NPU); Chair: Karin Toska (NO)During 2020 ongoing progress towards C-NPU terms of reference included:
Term of Reference 1. To continuously provide advice for the management, updating andpublishing of the NPU terminology. Accomplishments include: An online NPU or international
laboratory terminology manual is being established via an IUPAC project. Access will be provided
by a link from the main governance site (http://www.npu-terminology.org). The NPU Steering
Committee website continues to act as the main governance site (http://www.npu-terminology.
org), while the NPU terminology itself can be searched from (http://www.ifcc.org/ifcc-scientificdivision/sd-committees/c-npu/npusearch/). The NPU also holds a Wikipedia page at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NPU_terminology. Via an IUPAC project, a promotion video and a leaflet
has been produced, presented at conferences and put on the internet (YouTube). List planned
activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference: Continue teleconference and face-to-facemeetings of both the C-NPU and NPU SC. Finish the terminology manual and promote its use.
(https://labterminology.com/)
Establishing definitions for non-referenced terms in the NPU terminology.
Term of Reference 2. To make recommendations on NPU for reporting clinical laboratory datathat conform to or adapt current standards of authoritative organizations and that will improvetheir utilization for health care. Accomplishments include: Project on online “dynamic” manual
for the NPU terminology continues, chaired by Young Bae Lee Hansen. A new website has
established and is under construction. https://dynamicnpumanual.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/
DNM/pages/89522221/NPU+Concept+Model. This is expected to act as both a user manualand reference, but also as repository for NPU decisions made during NPU scientific meetings.
NPU Steering Committee continues to administer and update its strategic plan and work on
the international release centres. List planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference:
C-NPU will continue to work in order to broaden the international use of NPU terminology and todemonstrate how NPU terminology may be used with other terminologies and open standards,
for example SNOMED CT and FHIR messaging. C-NPU will work on an international standard
for a laboratory information model, and establish NPU terminology as an integral componentof laboratory messaging. Project on online “dynamic” manual for the NPU terminology iscontinuing development in 2021. IUPAC Technical report is scheduled to be submitted in 2021.
C-NPU continues to review technical issues around use of the NPU terminology from users andnational release centres.
Term of Reference 3. To provide a connection with other organizations concerned with NPU
21such as the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM), the European Committee forStandardization (CEN) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and, byextension, clinical laboratory science societies such as the International Union of Pure and Applied
Chemistry (IUPAC), and the in vitro diagnostics industry, to ensure that problems encounteredby health care professionals in the area of NPU are considered by those organizations.
Accomplishments include: C-NPU remains a joint committee with both IFCC and IUPAC
representation. Prof. Helle Johannessen is Vice-president of Division VII (IUPAC). Prof. Colin
Humphries from IUPAC Exec has continued to attend the majority of Steering Committee
meetings and teleconferences. Titular member Prof. Koh Furuta (KF, JPN) participated in therevision of ISO 15189.
Prof. Gunnar Nordin participated in BIPM WG2 meetings and provided input into the upcoming
VIM4 (International Vocabulary of Metrology). Prof. Daniel Karlsson reports to the NPU on
IHTSDO/SNOMED-CT related matters. The National Release Centres of Denmark, Norway andSweden provide national NPU support for those countries, and are represented both on the
SC NPU and C-NPU. List planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference: Continue towork with the NPU National Release Centres to ensure utility of the NPU terminology and review
and respond to questions or concerns.Continue the work with IUPAC on projects. Continuecommunications with external metrology groups (e.g. BIPM WG2), ISO groups and IHTSDO
representatives.
Term of Reference 4. To act as a consultant group on NPU in clinical chemistry and, by extension,in the rest of clinical laboratory sciences to international scientific panels, regional and national
clinical laboratory sciences organizations, editors of scientific journals, manufacturers of clinicallaboratory instrumentation and products, and to individual clinical laboratory professionals andother health care professionals. Accomplishments include:• Chair and individual NPU members continue to be active with their societies, particularly in
the informatics and terminology arenas.
• NPU connected members are active as members of their respective national NPU releasecentres (NRCs).
• Dr. Gunnar Nordin continues to be active within the Joint Committee for Guides in Metrology
Working Group 2 (JCGM WG2)
List planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference:• Continuation of activities described above.
• A vacant titular membership of C-NPU is open and been published through IFCC. The
membership is pending.
• C-Molecular Diagnostics (C-MD); Chair: Parviz Ahmad-Nejad (DE)
During 2020 ongoing progress towards C-MD’s terms of reference included:
Term of Reference 1. To foster dynamic exchanges between IFCC and molecular diagnostic
laboratories and industry. Accomplishments Include: Dr. Jim Huggett from LGC Genomics
was added to the C-MD. Dr. Huggett contributed to a publication coming from C-MD (seePublications Section).
A second manuscript was published addressing the current status quo of quality control in
Molecular diagnostics (see Publications Section). List planned activities in 2021 for this Termof Reference: Initiate a further online survey addressing SARS-CoV 2 molecular diagnostics
on an international level. With this, challenges and performances of laboratories in moleculardiagnostics shall be elucidated; List of EQA providers will be updated. Website will be updated.
Term of Reference 2. To produce guidelines on clinical validation of tests, conduct andreporting of molecular diagnostic tests. Accomplishments Include: The list of EQA providers
was updated and will be part of the new publication Current and Future Challenges in Quality
Assurance in Molecular Diagnostics by Dr. Parviz Ahmad-Nejad et al which is currently inrevision and submitted to CCA. List planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference:
A checklist for the verification of molecular genetic test procedures will be completed and the22document will be available on the C-MD homepage (this point has not been completed due toa lack of time during the pandemic situation).
Term of Reference 3. To create a network of locus-specific IFCC Molecular Diagnostics Centres(MDC).
Accomplishments Include: A new call for Molecular Diagnostic Network and Expert
Laboratories was initiated. After reviewing within the Committee the listed laboratories wererecommended. List planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference: To re-evaluate thework which has been accomplished by the MDC-lab so far. Initiate a new call for MDC Labs.
• C-Traceability in Laboratory Medicine (C-TLM); Chair: Anja Kessler (DE)
During 2020 ongoing progress towards C-TLM terms of reference included:
Term of Reference 1. To support activities regarding Traceability in Laboratory Medicine,permitting IFCC to continue its international role in this area and providing an operating link
between the SD and the WGs of the Joint Committee on Traceability in Laboratory Medicine(JCTLM), concerning identification of reference measurement procedures, reference materials
and reference laboratories.
Accomplishments include: The chair of C-TLM participated in the (virtual) annual meetingof JCTLM Database WG and JCTLM Executive Board. The results of the annual survey RELA
for calibration laboratories were discussed and were among other factors responsible for thedecision of listing nominated calibration laboratories in the JCTLM Database. List planned
activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference: Due to the pandemic no further actions are
currently planned for 2021. C-TLM will contribute to the next JCTLM symposium “Traceability
in laboratory medicine - vital for clinical value” at WorldLab in Seoul which was postponed toJune 2022. The title of the lecture will be “Traceability for Laboratory Medicine – the role of thenational measurement institute” and will highlight the qualification of calibration laboratories
and their impact on implementation of metrological traceability.
Term of Reference 2. To support reference laboratories in the context of complete reference
systems (accepted reference measurement procedures of higher order, reference materials,
and reference laboratories) by establishing an External Quality Assessment Scheme (EQAS)
for reference laboratories in order to monitor their competence. Accomplishments include:
The EQA scheme RELA for calibration laboratories had been organized for the 17th time. The
results of RELA2020 has been evaluated. The number of results is constantly increasing up to
approximately 500 results of 55 laboratories. Laboratories from all over the world, especiallyfrom Europe and China are active as calibration laboratories or candidate calibrationlaboratories. All results except those for HbA1c have been published on the website (http://
www.dgkl-rfb.de:81) with open access. In summary, it should be mentioned that despite
the pandemic, the program could be realized successfully. The next survey RELA 2021
was announced; 667 orders have already been registered. The samples were sent out endof November. Planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference: The evaluation of
RELA2021 will be in May 2021. It is planned to conduct RELA surveys in parallel with CCQM
comparison studies of NMIs for HbA1c and enzymes, respectively. The coordinators of NMIs
contacted the chair of C-TLM to discuss the design and organization of both projects. These
projects will be pending, however; the effects of the pandemic on progress cannot yet be
estimated. Nevertheless, it would be an important step to demonstrate the implementation of
metrological traceability.
Term of Reference 3. To promote establishment and maintenance of IFCC referencelaboratory networks for clinically relevant measurands (e.g. the IFCC HbA1c network).
Accomplishments include: HbA1c Network. It is standard for the IFCC Network to organize
two intercomparison studies a year. Due to the pandemic the first study has been postponed
to a later date. Planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference: The HbA1c network
will continue its activities in 2021.
Additional Information: The RELA procedure manual has to be revised and limits of equivalence23for new measurands have to be added. This will be an additional project for 2021.
• C-Reference Intervals and Decision Limits (C-RIDL); Chair: Yeşim Özarda (TR)• During 2020 ongoing progress towards C-RIDL terms of reference included:
Term of Reference 1. To review current concepts of establishing reference intervals anddecision limits and to prepare state-of-the-art position statements regarding new avenues.
Accomplishments include: The study to compare direct and indirect approaches for thedetermination of reference intervals has been finished. Indirect reference intervals were calculatedwith the most used and popular methods (i.e. Bhattacharya, Hoffman, Arzideh methods) in theliterature. The results of indirect reference intervals were compared with the direct reference
intervals that are originated from Bursa, Turkey. The C-RIDL has submitted a manuscript to thespecial issue of CCA. List planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference: The paperon the comparison of the indirect and direct reference intervals will be published in 2021.
Term of Reference 2. To make available reference intervals and decision limits that respects therequirements of international directives such as the European IVD Directive 98/79, and relevant
ISO standards. Accomplishments include: In 2020, the indirect reference interval study of thesame biochemical parameters with the Global study has been initiated for the comparison andto make available reference intervals that respect the requirements of international directives
such as the European IVD Directive 98/79. The results of the Global Reference Intervals Study
performed by C-RIDL have been previously downloaded on the web-page of IFCC, C-RIDL. The
country-specific reference intervals were derived for China, Japan, Turkey, Russia, UK, USA,
Saudi Arabia, Argentina, India, Philippines, South Africa, and Pakistan and related analyses
on reference values were carried out and the comparison of the reference values across 12
countries after alignment based on the panel test results were fully described in these 2 papers.
List planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference: After the publication regarding
the findings of the indirect reference interval study of biochemical parameters will be comparedwith the results of the Global Reference Interval Study and the comparative data will also begiven on the web-page.
Term of Reference 3. To determine priority list of measurands (analytes) for which reference
intervals and/or decision limits have to be developed, considering various factors, such as age,gender, ethnicity, and for which the greatest improvements in medical decision making are
anticipated. Accomplishments include: In the indirect reference intervals study to comparewith the direct data obtained conducted in Turkey, the gender and age-related changes in thereference values were evaluated that will be included in the comparison paper (direct vs indirect
method comparison). List planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference: After the
publication, the effect of gender and age-related changes in the reference intervals will be
published on the webpage of C-RIDL.
Term of Reference 4. To monitor and evaluate currently proposed reference intervals forselected measurands (analytes) in the light of the concept of traceability and of the identificationof the uncertainty.
Accomplishments include: No action was taken on this Term of Reference. List planned
activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference: Not planned.
Term of Reference 5. Establish transferability protocols of reference intervals and decision
limits, which take into consideration inter-routine laboratory method variations and achieve
better applicability in clinical practice. Accomplishments include: No action was taken on thisTerm of Reference. List planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference: Not planned.
Term of Reference 6. To collaborate with other organizations and/or to undertake establishmentof reference intervals or decision limits for measurands (analytes) identified as a priority.
Accomplishments include: A review of article on indirect reference interval studies has been
written with the collaboration of the indirect reference intervals study group named ‘Number
group’ in the Netherlands and a group of researcher working on reference intervals in Spain (seePublications below). List planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference: Literature24

or systematic review of data on reference interval studies will be written and submitted tothe special issue of CCA with the collaboration of the indirect reference intervals study groupnamed ‘Number group’ in the Netherlands.
Term of Reference 7. To work in close collaboration with other Cs and WGs of SD and other
IFCC Divisions for the development and appropriate clinical utilization of reference intervals anddecision limits
Accomplishments include: IFCC president, Professor Khosrow Adeli has organized a meetingon the IFCC Webpage/Database on Reference Intervals (A Global Resource for ClinicalLaboratories around the World). In the discussion, the chair of C-RIDL has expressed her
opinion that the C could play an important role on this project. List planned activities in 2021
for this Term of Reference: According to decision of this study group with Professor Khosrow
Adeli, suggested activities will be planned.
Additional Information
Chair of C-RIDL, Yesim Ozarda presented on ‘’Challenges and Advances in Reference Intervals
and Decision Limits” at the IFCC Symposium (Symp. 2112) at the 2020 AACC Annual Scientific
Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo, on 17 December 2020.
• C-Standardization of Thyroid Function Tests (C-STFT); Chair: Hubert Vesper (US)During 2020 ongoing progress towards C-STFT terms of reference included:
Term of Reference 1.
A. Establish a system to maintain traceability of free thyroid hormone and TSH measurements.
B. Coordinate programs to evaluate free thyroid and TSH assays with regards to their analytical
performance.
C. Develop reference intervals for free thyroid hormones and TSH.
D. Liaise with key stakeholders to promote the use of the standardized assays in routine clinicalpractice and public health, to ensure analytical performance requirements meet clinicalneeds, and to help with developing and establishing reference intervals.
Accomplishments include: A1: In an effort to establish a network of reference laboratories
for fT4, 4 network members Ref4U (Belgium), CDC Clinical Reference Laboratories (USA),
Radboud University Medical Center of Nijmegen (The Netherlands), and Reference Material
Institute for Clinical Chemistry Standards (Japan), conducting a second interlaboratory method
comparison, performing the IFCC International conventional reference measurement procedure(RMP) that is traceable to SI in accordance with ISO 17511. This second study, encompassing
samples with FT4 concentrations spread over the entire measurement range, will be used toestablish the network. As the second study is ongoing, operational rules for the network arebeing established. Note, finalization of this second study has been delayed due to each lab
internal priorities and responses provoked by the COVID-19 pandemic.
A2: The harmonization protocol is being used to harmonize TSH in Japan and to develop
reference intervals for TSH based on harmonized assays. Initial findings suggest that theharmonization protocol first used 3 years ago can be reproduced. This provides opportunities
for using the protocol in other countries.
A3: The committee is working on preparing a new harmonization panel for TSH to ensure
continuity of harmonization. It is anticipated that this effort will take 12-18 months and will
require funds created for this purpose. The request for approval by the ethics committee of the
UGent is initiated. Feedback was delayed because of the ethics committee’s prioritization of
COVID-19 related submissions. Due to changing legislation, additional administration comparedto the past is needed. All documents are being finalized and generalized so that similar requests
in additional collection centres outside Belgium can be initiated.
A4: The stability study, initiated upon certification of the FT4 and TSH harmonization/
standardization panel in 2015 ended in 2020. Final FT4 and TSH measurements were conductedby one of our industry partners. Data-analysis is ongoing.
B1: The committee successfully started a collaboration with the U.S. NIST to assess suitability of25

potential reference materials for fT4. NIST materials were included in the inter-laboratory study.
B2: CDC Clinical Standardization Programs is planning to launch a standardization program for
fT4 in spring 2021, which is aligned to the IFCC reference system.
C1: The committee successfully established contact with the Nepalese Society of Clinical
Chemistry and will work with the C-RIDL to help with establishing reference intervals in Nepal.
Currently waiting for the Nepal society of clinical chemistry to reach back on next steps.
C2: The committee provided technical assistance to colleagues in Japan to help with establishingharmonized reference intervals for TSH. These intervals will be recognized by regulatory bodies
and clinical stakeholders.
C3: The committee successfully established contact with PIs of the EUThryoid project to help
with harmonizing/standardizing fT4 and TSH tests used in the study. Committee will reach out
to EUThyroid once the inter-lab study is completed and the reference laboratory capacity isestablished.
C4: The committee successfully reached out to PIs in Croatia to help with harmonizing reference
intervals for TSH. Approaches to help the PIs with their study are currently being explored.
C5: The committee identified a large epidemiolocal study in Finland and is reaching out toensure TSH and fT4 measurements are aligned with the IFCC reference system.
C6: The American College of Pathologists is using an accuracy-based survey for thyroid function
tests with reference values for fT4 aligned to the IFCC reference system.
D1: The website C-STFT is currently under revision; it is the intention to revise and make it moreaccessible for a broader type of readers. Progress was delayed due to COVID-19 changes inpriorities. Revisions is planned to be finalized in 2021.
D2: A compilation was made from the previous outreach efforts to stakeholders to inform them
about changes in assay calibration and to collect information about possible concerns related
to these changes. This compilation was shared with the committee members and has been
made available on the C website for the broader public.
D3: A paper about the work of the committee was accepted for publication. Revision of themanuscript is currently ongoing.
List planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference: A1: Finalize interlaboratory study
for fT4 and establish formal network of reference laboratories. This includes network protocols
and ISO compliant SOPs.
A2: Finalize collection protocol for TSH follow-up panel and start collection of TSH specimens.
A3: Revise TSH harmonization protocol, if needed, based on findings for the harmonization
efforts performed in Japan.
A4: Publish findings from the interlaboratory studies, and if agreeable with colleagues’ fromJapan, on the TSH harmonization.
B1: Coordinate with national standardization and harmonization efforts, such as the CDC
Clinical Standardization Programs.
B2: Reach out to EQA providers to ensure accuracy-based surveys are aligned to the IFCC
reference system.
B3: Complete evaluation of NIST materials and publish findings.
C1: Develop approaches/protocols to align ongoing reference interval activities to the IFCC
reference system as interim until assays are standardized/harmonized.
C2: Provide technical assistance to national efforts developing reference intervals or conducting
studies that may be used for developing reference intervals.
D1: Conduct meetings or workshops at national conferences such as the annual AACC meeting
to promote standardization of fT4 and harmonization of TSH.
D2: Conduct one meeting at the Worldlab conference in Seoul and invite stakeholders from thatgeographical region to inform them about the work being performed by the IFCC and to obtain
information about ongoing national efforts in the region.
D3: Conduct one in-person committee meeting outside major meetings. In addition, focus
meetings at conference such as Worldlab on outreach and education.
26

D4: Educate stakeholders on the upcoming changes in fT4 calibration (targeted information on
website and at scientific meetings and other communication channels).
• C-Harmonization of Autoantibody Test (C-HAT); Chair: Joanna Sheldon (UK)
During 2020 ongoing progress towards C-HAT terms of reference included:
Term of Reference 1. To evaluate what are the main causes of variability for a number ofdiagnostically critical autoantibodies. Accomplishments include: No further progress since
the last update.
Term of Reference 2. To identify autoantibodies where a common calibrator could reduce theinter-assay variability. Accomplishments include: The first commutability study for IgG anti
glomerular basement membrane has been completed and a candidate material identified. Prof
Pusey form Imperial School of Medicine has provided the materials for a second commutability
study. The reagent kits and the patient samples are already in the JRC. The antibodies forvalue assignment have been purified. Developing reference materials for IgG and IgA anti TTG
antibodies is progressing – the aim is to make one material with values for both antibodies
assigned. The candidate materials also have good titres of antibody to deamidated gliadin andthis may be a further standardization project for the future. Initial commutability studies arecomplete and the bulk serum is in the JRC waiting for normal on-site working to resume, then theprocessing will start with the delipidation stage and then back on track for the RM preparationand evaluation. As a result of the difficulties in assigning mass units to the anti B2 glycoprotein 1
material the C explored the possibility of working with NIBSC and having the material approvedby the WHO. The preliminary application to the WHO through NIBSC was approved in October
2020 and progressing with submitting the full application and documentation. Ultimately, thevalue will be assigned to the material prepared by the JRC in arbitrary units (optimally IU/ml
but it may be needed to accept values in U/ml). NIBSC will “curate” the material with only asmall number of vials available from NIBSC. Enquiries and sales will be redirected to the JRC.
Considering the difficulties and lack of commutability of the calibrant material that should havebeen used for the formal value assignment of this reference material, this is the best way forward.
Term of Reference 3. To identify or produce commutable materials that could be used asinterim calibration material for autoantibody assays. Accomplishments include: Progress on
the IgG and IgA anti TTG materials is slow due to the global pandemic but once normal working
resumes, the C will explore other antigens on this material e.g., antibodies to deamidated
gliadin. List planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference:
FDA and CE: There remains significant reluctance by companied in adopting the referencematerials for IgG anti MPO and IgG anti PR3 and the global pandemic has given companies
another reason not to change. However, personal communication with some companies
suggests that they may look to the CRMs when developing new versions of the IgG anti MPO
and IgG anti PR3 methods; EQA: No further progress.
Communication: The interaction with the FDA is central to being able to promote the use of the
new CRMs and this must be the focus of future activities. Until the use of ERM-DA476/IFCC
and ERM DA 483/IFCC is embedded into the kit documentation, further communication withother bodies will be difficult. Time scale: No further progress.
Further projects: Anti GBM antibodies and Anti TTG antibodies are both in progress.
Term of Reference 4. To produce well-characterized pure antibody preparations withknown concentration and identity and use these to transfer values to a matrix preparation.
Accomplishments include: The preparation of pure antibody preparations with known
concentration is embedded in the value assignment process.
Term of Reference 5. To evaluate the impact of new reference material on the variability of
autoantibody tests and identify areas where further harmonization would improve diagnostic
accuracy. Accomplishments include: EQA providers have been diverted from normal operations
towards the EQA schemes for COVID antibodies; however, the C continued discussion with
UKNEQAS and the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia Quality Assurance Programs
27

but the progress depends on some co-operation from companies to enable the C to use values
based on ERM DA 476/IFCC and ERM DA 483/IFCC.
Additional Information: The WG specifically encouraged all companies not currently membersof the IFCC to become corporate members both in letter and in presentations.
• C-Bone Metabolism (C-BM); Chair: Etienne Cavalier (BE)
During 2020 ongoing progress towards IFCC-IOF Joint Committee for Bone Metabolism (CBM) terms of reference included:
Term of Reference 1. PTH standardization. Accomplishments include: Commutability
study: A pilot study has been performed. Prof. Cathie Sturgeon (CS) prepared samples
enriched with the IS 95/646 and has sent them to Prof. Etienne Cavalier’s (EC) laboratory.
EC also prepared other matrices (Roche universal diluents, Sigma, Horse serum, patient pool
Abbott diluents) to check the commutability of the Standard. For each concentration tested,
20 native serum samples were used to bracket it. The assays used were Roche, Abbott (2ndgeneration), DiaSorin and Fujirebio (3rd generation). Results were presented during a virtual
meeting on June 29th. Essentially, the pools prepared by CS are mostly commutable, but thelimits used to make them commutable are quite broad (+/25%) which “consumes” the capitalof total error available based on biological variation of PTH. Nevertheless, this is the state of theart and it was proposed to move on with other methods. CS is preparing new pools that will betested by as many methods as possible in EC’s lab. Samples should be received in December
2020 or January 2021. Liaison with other societies: EC contacted K-DIGO representatives,
but K-DIGO does not endorse any other initiative. The Council of ERA-EDTA (European Renal
Association-European Dialysis and Transplantation Association) has endorsed the Committee
and Standardization projects. List planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference:
Achieve and finalize the commutability study. Return to working on PTH RMP.
Term of Reference 2. Standardize or harmonize bone markers assays. Accomplishments
include:- PINP: EC and Prof. Vincent Delatour (VD) have designed a commutability study by enrichingvarious matrices with PINP provided by IDS. Methodology is the same as the one used for PTH.
The Roche Universal Diluent has been found to be commutable for IDS, Roche and Orion PINP
assays. Results were presented to the Committee by VD during the virtual meeting of June 29th.
In addition:• A manuscript has been accepted in CCLM.
• An equation allowing harmonization has been proposed.
• A commutability study is ongoing.
• A study on biological variation of PINP and other markers on remaining samples from
EuBIVAS has been performed, and a paper has been published (see Publications
Section below).
• An Editorial on PINP has been written.
List planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference• Evaluate the opportunity to develop a RMP for PINP.
• Prepare commutable standard to calibrate assays (with the support of the LNE).
• Submit the various papers mentioned.
- CTX: A paper on the multicenter study has been written, but was put on hold because of thepoor quality of the results. Additional studies were performed which provided clarity as to what
happened. EC has proposed a new version of the manuscript. This version has been approvedby all authors (and had already been analyzed by the SD). He sent it to IDS and Roche and willsubmit it by the end of 2020.
A study on biological variation of CTX on remaining samples from EuBIVAS has been performed
and the paper has been published in Osteoporosis International.
Manufacturers should work to improve the issues observed during the multicentre study. Thisis mandatory for the future of the marker. - Other bone biomarkers: Different other biomarkers
28have been measured in Liege to evaluate their biological variation: osteocalcin, FGF-23 anduCuP-MGP. The manuscript has been accepted in Osteoporosis International. List planned
activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference:Consider manuscripts for the other bone markers.
Term of Reference 3. Vitamin D metabolites assay standardization. Accomplishments include:
The manuscript on measurement uncertainty has been submitted and is currently under review.
There have been some difficulties to recruit pregnant women due to the COVID situation for afollow-up study. List planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference: Complete thestudy on VTD in pregnant women.
 Working Group• WG-Standardization of Hemoglobin A2 (WG-SHbA2); Chair: Andrea Mosca (IT)During 2020 ongoing progress towards WG-HbA2 terms of reference included:
Term of Reference 1. Definition of a reference measurement procedure for haemoglobin A2.
Accomplishments include: A paper describing the principle of the RMP based on isotopic
dilution and mass spectrometry and its preliminary validation was published in 2018 in Clin
Chim Acta. The characterization of purity and content of the recombinant hemoglobins (rHbA
and rHbA2) recently purchased by the JRC (Geel, BE) was performed by Dr. Arsene (PTB, DE)
in collaboration with the JRC lab of Dr. G. Auclair (JRC). After a purification step of the rHbA2,
needed because of a contamination from a E. coli protein, two stock solutions have been
prepared. List planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference: The stock solutionsof the rHbs will be distributed to the four reference laboratories (2 in Europe and 2 in China)
and a ring trial will be performed to assess the robustness of the RMP implemented in the four
MS laboratories. A final validation will be performed, in order to publish the RMP as on official
IFCC reference method, after approval by the Scientific Division and further ballot among the
Corporate National Societies.
Term of Reference 2. Development of a secondary certified reference material (CRM) for
hemoglobin A2 (in cooperation with the JRC). Accomplishments include: Before the summerof 2020 a set of 10 hemolysates were prepared at the JRC from 10 different blood units, from
non-carriers and beta-thal carrier subjects, shipped to Belgium from the unit in Milano. The
final step of the lyophilization was not performed due to Covid-19 lockdown in Belgium. List
planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference: A set of approximately 3000 vials perlevel will have to be prepared at JRC and processed in order to release the Certified Reference
Materials, according to the procedures of the Center. Some of the components of the WG willtake part in the validation and value assignment activities.
• WG-Standardization of Carbohydrate-Deficient Transferrin (WG-CDT); Chair: Jean
Deenmamode (UK)
During 2020 ongoing progress towards WG-CDT terms of reference included:
Term of Reference 1. Promoting the use of the HPLC reference measurement procedure(RMP) as the accuracy base for CDT test standardization. Accomplishments include: Ongoing
restrictions during 2020 have impacted plans set out during 2019. The CDT Working Group has
provided support via Zoom meetings to a candidate laboratory from Italy with great potential of
joining the network for using the RMP.
List planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference: Continue to raise awarenessof the IFCC approved RMP through online meetings and electronic communications whenapproached by current CDT users still hesitant to switch from classic to CDTIFCC. Actively
seek further participants globally as candidate laboratories with progression to network statusthrough participation in the annual IFCC CDT blind study.
Term of Reference 2. Maintaining sustainability of an international network of laboratories
Accomplishments include: Sustainability and performance of network laboratories andparticipating commercial manufacturers are assessed by the yearly distribution of IFCC
29

calibrators, controls and blind samples from Dr. Weykamp’s MCA NL laboratory section now
overseen by Dr. Carla Siebelder.
Laboratory performance is assessed on a pass/fail criterion and HPLC RMP performance isassessed in further detail by Dr Schellenberg. The 2020 Cycle took place during the first quarterof this year with participants’ results submitted by end May. Performance and participation
were presented and discussed during the WG’s annual meeting via Zoom on 06 August
20.There were five successful IFCC networked laboratories this year, with one candidate lab
yet to improve in performance and one manufacturer who has yet to pass the blind study.
Manufacturers’ contribution towards this study do not form part of the CDT WG’s funds. List
planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference: Cycle of blind IFCC samples will takeplace during late spring / early summer 2021, following prior requests which will be sent toall prospective participants (network labs and manufacturers). Results will be presented anddiscussed during the WG CDT meeting anticipated during the EuroMedlab Munich event.
Term of Reference 3. Supporting the worldwide standardization of commercial methods
against the RMP
Accomplishments include: Most participating commercial CDT manufacturers have achieved
positive results towards CDTIFCC and have launched respective assays. A further CDT
manufacturer participated in the standardization process and passed this year’s blind study. In
addition, WG members have been in discussion with another manufacturer towards reviewing
their approach to improve alignment closer to CDTIFCC. List planned activities in 2021 for thisTerm of Reference: Continue to assist the remaining commercial participants in successfully
achieving the CDTIFCC goal. The WG will endeavour to support the definitive transition fromclassical CDT to CDTIFCC.
Term of Reference 4. Offering consultation concerning use of biomarkers of alcoholism towards
national and international agencies. Accomplishments include: Generally, a local or extended
activity initiated primarily by a member of the WG. The process has been in place with better
success in Sweden and the Netherlands. Similar efforts are progress in the UK with certain
agencies, aviation Medicine and government advisors abroad. List planned activities in 2021
for this Term of Reference: To maintain the above activities ongoing in other countries.
Additional Information• Providing scientific support for the production and delivery of authorized RMP
Actively supporting other sites interested towards introducing the RMP as part of the
network laboratories.
• Supporting the development of guidelines for clinical use of CDT assays
Work in progress• JCTLM nomination
Work in progress• WG-Standardization of Albumin Assay in Urine (WG-SAU) (a joint committee with theLaboratory Working Group (LWG) of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive
and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), USA; Chair: Jesse Seegmiller (US)During 2020 ongoing progress towards WG-SAU terms of reference included:
Terms of Reference 1. The project objectives are to: 1.) Develop a candidate reference
measurement procedure suitable to analyze native patient urine specimens; 2.) Use and apply
Standard Reference Material in the candidate reference measurement procedure to value assign
the calibration of the candidate reference measurement procedure. Accomplishments include:
Reference Materials for urine albumin: Standard Reference Material SRM 2925 Pure Albumin
became available for purchase from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
in 2020. SRM 3666 in Frozen Human Urine is in preparation. List planned activities in 2021 forthis Term of Reference: Value assignment of the candidate reference measurement procedurecalibrators was planned, but halted due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
Terms of Reference 2. Perform comparison studies on 40 urine specimens for urine albumin
30

using the reference measurement procedures from Mayo Clinic (LC-MS/MS), NIST (LC-MS/MS),
Singapore (LC-MS/MS) and the University of Minnesota Advanced Research and Diagnostic
Laboratory (LC-MS/MS).
Accomplishments include: The comparison study plan was agreed upon by the LWG. Thisconsisted of disseminating 40 urine specimens amongst the different laboratories to analyze
and compare results.
List planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference: Comparison studies were halted
due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
Term of Reference 3. Validation metrics needed for a liquid chromatography tandem mass
spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) candidate reference measurement procedure. Accomplishments
include: Validation of the University of Minnesota’s LC-MS/MS candidate reference
measurement procedure was performed. This measurement procedure examines 6 humanserum albumin peptides and evaluates two MS/MS MRM transitions per peptide after proteolysis
treatment with trypsin. In addition, the corresponding 15N internal standard peptides weremonitored using MRM. The validation encompassed the following experiments: Intra-assay
imprecision, inter-assay imprecision (N=21 days), recovery, carryover, stability (Day 0-28 atroom temperature, 4-80C, 200C and -800C), sample comparison, interference and specificity
studies. Each peptide was validated independently over a period of 21 separate days, where
the imprecision was determined to be between 4-8 %CV throughout the calibration range of
3-200 mg/L. Three quality control urine specimens were also examined. List planned activities
in 2021 for this Term of Reference: Given the findings from this validation study it was agreed
upon through consensus by the NIDDK-LWG it would be necessary to perform replication to
improve imprecision < 5 %CV. This was an empirical determination and the group decided
the RMP final validation would require N=4 replicates to meet the imprecision requirements
for a JCTLM certified measurement procedure. Moving forward with this particular candidatereference measurement procedure will involve 4 replicates of all calibrators, quality controls andspecimens. Additional validation studies surrounding 4 replicate analyses were halted due tothe SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
• WG-Standardization of Pregnancy-associated Plasma Protein A (WG-PAPP A); Chair:
Saara Wittfooth (FI)During 2020 ongoing progress towards WG-PAPPA terms of reference included:
Term of Reference 1: To develop a reference system for standardization of PAPP-A
measurement employed as marker for prenatal screening. Accomplishments include: The
COVID-19 situations halted the activities in 2020. List planned activities in 2021 for thisTerm of Reference: Finalization of the protocol and testing of NIST SRM 1949 with various
company assays and assignment of PAPP-A value for this material. Possibly also a study ofthe performance of the commercial PAPP-A assays “in the field” in respect of the detection ofdifferent PAPP-A forms in collaboration with UK NEQAS.
• WG-Growth Hormone (WG-GH); Chair: Eef Lentjes (NL)
During 2020 ongoing progress towards WG-HbA2 terms of reference included: The overall goalof the WG-GH is to achieve standardization of growth hormone through secondary referencematerials and a reference measurement procedure. A long recognized problem in the reliablemeasurement of GH is the lack of standardization of different assays that are currently used.
Standardization of the GH assays has been hampered by the unavailability of a commutable
certified reference material and of an acknowledged reference method. The WHO standard
IS 98/574, against which all current assays are calibrated, was found not to be commutable
when tested in different matrices. To address these issues, the WG is currently organizing acommutability study at two reference laboratories using LCMS/MS. The difference in bias will becompared with a pre-determined criterion based on medically relevant differences. The goal is
to determine how close the bias of a RM (reference material) and the CS (clinical representative31

samples) are to each other. A RM is commutable if the systematic difference, or bias, for the RM
and the average bias for the CS between two measurement procedures (dRM), at the RM level,is within an agreed criterion. A maximum of dRM, named the commutability criterion (C), isalready decided. Once the reference material and reference measurement procedure is finalized
the following commercial assay will be studied:
Siemens
Immulite 2000/XP
DiaSorin
LiaisonBeckmanCoulter Access/DXi
IDS
Isys
Roche
Cobas/Elecsys• WG-Standardization of Insulin Assays (WG-SIA); Chairs: Mike Steffes (US) and Jesse
Seegmiller (US)During 2020 ongoing progress towards WG-SIA terms of reference included:
Term of Reference 1. To improve the standardization of assays for insulin by the developmentof a candidate reference method and materials. Accomplishments include: Established a
RMP for insulin at the University of Minnesota. Completed with a manuscript in process. List
planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference: Manuscript in process.
Term of Reference 2. Review accomplishments of other investigators in the Working Group.
Accomplishments include: Anecdotal interactions. List planned activities in 2021 for this Termof Reference: Interaction among all groups by a virtual meeting, reviewing accomplishments ineach laboratory establishing a RMP.
Term of Reference 3. WHO Reference Material for Insulin. Accomplishments include: None.
List planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference: During planned virtual meeting
status of latest/current Reference Material will be discussed.
• WG-Standardization of Troponin I (WG-TNI); Chair: Rob Christenson (US)During 2020 ongoing progress towards WG-TNI terms of reference included:
Term of Reference 1: Write and submit a proposal to the USA’s National Institutes of Standards
and Technology (NIST) for funding collection of whole blood samples from normal volunteers.
These samples are to be processed to lithium heparin plasma and used as a diluent for creationof RM 8121.
Accomplishments include:• The proposal for grant funding was completed and submitted to NIST in early 2020. The
proposal was written with the guidance and assistance of Drs. Phinney and Lowenthal
from NIST.
• Unfortunately, although receiving approval from the Ethics Committee, due to the
COVID-19 pandemic collections could not begin. This is because all non-COVID-19
research was halted from March through September 2020 at University of Maryland
School of Medicine.
• Funding for the whole blood collection was approved by NIST in the early summer of2020.
• Currently, whole blood is being collected that is being processed to lithium heparin
plasma and will be utilized as a diluent for blending with elevated cardiac troponin I
samples from MI patients. These elevated samples have been collected and are archived
at -700C in monitored freezers located at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
The blending will be done to produce a set of 4 samples that will be termed RM 8121.
• All volunteers for the normal plasma are being tested for infectious diseases including
Hep A, B, C and HIV. All samples used must be negative.
• Each subject will also be tested for anti-cardiac troponin I antibodies.
• To date, whole blood has been collected from 25 normal volunteers. These samples
have been processed to plasma and are archived at -700C. Approximately 50% of the32amount of samples required for blending into the cTnI concentration series of 4 samples
that will be RM 8121 has been collected so far. List planned activities in 2021 for thisTerm of Reference• Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic shut down all research activities at the Universityof Maryland from March to September, 2020, and re-started with a phased approach.
The COVID-19 pandemic also impacted NIST’s activities. As a result, the WG-TNI
fell behind its time-lines for accomplishing planned 2020 activities. One particularly
regrettable outcome of the COVID-19 delay was that the C was unable to submit anarticle to the SD’s special collection/issue of the IFCC journal describing its work. Mostof the WG-TNI’s activities are now transferred to 2021, and are as follows:o Continue to work closely with Drs. Lowenthal, Phinney, Robert Payne andknowledgeable members of the laboratory community to produce RM 8121.
The endpoint is making this resource openly available to all in the laboratory
medicine field, worldwide through NIST.
o Write methods paper for publication on “Production of a Commutable Reference
Material for Cardiac Troponin I”.
o Write a paper describing the Round Robin for RM 8121 and promulgating theresults after review by the SD.
o Design and if time allows, conduct a round robin study with RM 8121 and initiate
validation and characterization among commercial high sensitivity cTnI assays.
This information will be intended as a step toward harmonizing and to assess thepossibility of cTnI harmonization.
Term of Reference 2: Assist NIST in developing the design specifications, and the Request
for Proposal for blending the lithium heparin diluent with elevated cTnI samples from MI
patients and producing RM 8121 and transfer into cryo-vials for long term storage at NIST.
Accomplishments include:• After meeting with stakeholders and NIST, the WG-TNI determined that the optimum
RM should consist of a series of sample vials with increasing cTnI concentrations. The
rationale was because such an RM would allow harmonization of the dynamic range
such as is characteristic of temporal cTnI release after myocardial injury.
• Thus the NIST RFP specifies that RM 8121 will be a set of four (4) samples, labelled Vials
A-D that will have increasing concentrations of cTnI. For the specification, the values
will be expressed in cTnI values from the Atellica TnIH assay (Siemens Healthineers).
The cTnI concentrations will be as follows: 1. Level A >LOQ but < female 99% upper
reference limit (URL), target concentration 20 ng/L (range 10 ng/L – 30 ng/L); 2. Level B~99% male URL + 20%, target concentration 65 ng/L (range 50 ng/L – 80 ng/L); 3. Level
C ~ 5-fold higher than 99% URL of males, target concentration 265 ng/L (range 220
ng/L – 310 ng/L); and 4. Level D, which will challenge the assay linear range, i.e. ~25-foldhigher than Level C, target concentration, ~6000 ng/L (range 5,000 ng/L – 7000 ng/L).
• It was determined after meeting with stakeholders that the volume of each vial in the set
A-D should be 0.7 mL.
• It was determined that 10,000 to 16,000 vials must be produced for RM 8121.
• There were a number of points at which the concentration of cTnI must be checked
during production to assure the series of vials comprising RM 8121 are each at their
specified concentration.
• The RFP was made public; several organizations responded with bids for RM 8121
production.
• The contract for blending the lithium heparin plasma and high concentration cTnI
samples into pools for RM 8121 vials A-D was awarded.
• Solomon Park Inc. in Washington State, a company that NIST has previously worked
successfully, was awarded the contract for blending the elevated cTnI samples andlithium heparin diluent to produce RM 8121. Solomon Park will also aliquot vials A-D into
33

•

•
•
•
•
•
•

their respective vials to form the RM 8121 sample sets. List planned activities in 2021
for this Term of Reference:
The WG-TNI and NIST will collaborate with Solomon Park Inc. in Washington State todesign each step in blending the elevated cTnI samples and lithium heparin diluent for
RM 8121 production. The team will also design workflow for aliquoting of RM 8121
materials into vials A-D.
The WG-TNI and NIST will be present on site to monitor the production of RM 8121.
The blending and creation of the RM 8121 sets of vials A-D should be completed in thefall of 2021.
Design of the round robin with hs-cTnI manufacturers will be completed by 31-December2021
Depending on timing of events, the shipment of RM 8121 may be initiated at the end of2021 or early in 2022.
Proposal submitted to the 2021 AACC Annual Meeting for Session on the production for
RM 8121 and path forward.
Presenting data at EUROMEDLAB, Munich on RM 8121.

• WG-CSF Proteins (WG-CSF); Chair: Johan Gobom (SE)		
During 2020 ongoing progress towards WG-CSF terms of reference included:
Term of Reference 1. Collaborative effort to develop RMPs and CRMs of CSF biomarkers toenable harmonization across analytical platforms: Development of new CSF biomarkers.
Accomplishments include:- Round Robin / Commutability study of blood Nfl (plasma and serum) has been performed,
comparing data from seven immunoassay platforms.
- Pilot Round Robin study of candidate reference methods for CSF tau, based on mass
spectrometry, has been performed.
- Round Robin study of candidate RMPs for CSF amyloid beta 1-40 is ongoing.
List planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference: Continuation of the above.
Term of Reference 2: CSF NFL Method/RMP collaborative project. Accomplishments include:
Still to be done.
• WG – Commutability in Metrological Traceability (WG-CMT); Chair: Greg Miller (US)During 2020 ongoing progress towards WG-C terms of reference included:
Term of Reference 1: Advise IFCC Committees and Working Groups on how to assess thecommutability of materials on which they are working. Accomplishments include: No requests
for advice were received in 2020. List planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference:
None unless a request is received.
Term of Reference 2: Establish procedures to use commutable reference materials, and tocorrect for non-commutability bias, in a metrological traceability hierarchy. Accomplishments
include: Report published (see publications section). List planned activities in 2021 for thisTerm of Reference: None; completed
Term of Reference 3: Establish how to define the criterion for acceptable commutability thatis required for a given reference material, taking into account its intended use in a metrologicaltraceability hierarchy or for surveillance of harmonization/standardization status of results fromdifferent measurement procedures.
Accomplishments include: Ongoing. List planned activities in 2021 for this Term ofReference: This item will continued to be developed by the WG.
Term of Reference 4: Provide recommendations on verifying commutability for replacement
batches of a reference material. Accomplishments include: Not started.List planned activities
in 2021 for this Term of Reference: None planned.
• WG - Immunosuppressive Drugs (WG-ID); Chair: Christoph Seger (CH)		
34

During 2020 ongoing progress towards WG-FIT terms of reference included:
Term of Reference 1. Regulatory framework for submission of methods and materials to JCTLM.
Term of Reference 3. Production of reference materials
Term of Reference 4. Establishment of reference methods
Term of Reference 5. Establishment of reference procedures
Accomplishments include: The MoU between IFCC and IATDMCT was signed and became
effective July 2020. This MoU allows both parties to run the WG-ID as a joint WG, which makes
sense, since the WG-ID members are also well organized in the “Immunosuppressive Drugs
Committee” of the IATDMCT (www.iatdmct.org/scientific-committees/scientific-committeesimmunosuppressive-drugs.html). From 2021 on, the activities of the WG-ID will be also sharedwith the ISD committee of the IATDMCT.
The critical evaluation of the two possible reference methods published (Grote-Koska et al,
Taibon et al.) was postponed from 2020 to 2021 due to the pending JCTLM acceptance processof the Taibon et al. (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinbiochem.2019.11.006) method. With the endof January 2021 the Taibon et al. method covering cyclosporine A, tacrolimus, sirolimus andeverolimus was published by the JCTLM. List planned activities in 2021 for this Term ofReference: Continue on these activities and to focus on the Terms of Reference as outlined.
Term of Reference 2. Measurement comparison initiative. Accomplishments include:
Activities have been postponed for the time being. List planned activities in 2021 for thisTerm of Reference: To be defined.
• WG - Apolipoproteins by Mass Spectrometry (WG-APO MS); Chair: Christa Cobbaert (NL)
During 2020 ongoing progress towards WG-APO MS terms of reference included:
Term of Reference 1: To achieve standardization of a panel of clinically relevant serum
apolipoproteins (apo) A-I, B, C-I, C-II, C-III, E and apo (a) (including qualitative phenotyping
where needed). Standardization is done in such a way that measurement results are traceable
to SI as outlined in ISO 17511. Other traceability chains will be used in cases where traceability
to SI cannot be achieved. Accomplishments include: Reference measurement procedure.
In 2020, the WG prepared an experimental strategy to prove equimolar digestion, which is anabsolute requirement to establish traceability to SI though peptide-based quantitation. At the
LUMC site, the behavior of peptides in alternative matrices was evaluated, and it was observedthat a non-digested serum matrix is necessary. Further experiments for apo(a) have been
delayed due to delayed delivery of materials due to COVID, and are now planned for 2021.
To improve the performance of the cRMP, new internal standard peptides were procured, which
each have C-terminal labelled arginine or lysine. The MS transitions were updated accordingly.
This results in more consistent performance of the internal standard peptides. Using theseinternal standard peptides, a new internal standard mixture that reflects average serum samples
was produced, aliquotted and labelled and sent out to the three candidate reference laboratories.
This mixture reduced the imprecision, particularly for apoA-I, as the concentrations variance
was largest for this protein.
Besides the internal standard mixture, a novel system suitability sample was also produced,
aliquotted, labelled and distributed. To further improve the precision of the cRMP, the LC
gradient was optimized, which resulted in a reduction of the average CV over all peptides in thesystem suitability test from 6% to 4%.
Based on these improvements, the SOP has been updated and is now being used by thecRMP laboratories to measure the samples from the apo(a) commutability study. Referencematerials.
A first batch of peptides to serve as primary reference materials for the apos A-I, B, C-I, C-II,
C-III and E was procured, and an initial purity assessment was performed on these peptides.
The purity of the peptides is sufficient for them to serve as candidate primary referencematerials, and a larger batch of these peptides will now be ordered. List planned activities in
2021 for this Term of Reference: Reference measurement procedure: A manuscript on the35

development of a harmonized LC-MS based reference method, including results of the ring trial
performed during the first apo(a) commutability study, as well as the fundamental choices madeand performance of the method achieved is in preparation and expected to be finalized in Q1
2021. The final experiments to prove equimolar digestion of apo(a) will be performed before Q2
2021, while these experiments for apoA-I and B will be performed by Q4 2021. The laboratories
will participate in the (2 or 3) commutability studies that are planned for 2021, and will provide
support during the cRM characterization and stability studies. Reference materials: Second
commutability assessment will be performed on the most promising apo(a) materials. Moreover,an initial commutability study to evaluate the potential of secondary reference materials for
apoA-I and B will be conducted by Q2 2020, and a similar study for apos C and E is foreseen
for Q4 2021. Procurement of large batch of peptide based primary reference materials for apos
A-I, B, Cs and E will be done in Q1 2021. Full purity assessment will be performed for these
peptides, stability will be assessed and values will be assigned before the end of Q4 2021.

Term of Reference 2: To evaluate clinical performance and clinical utility of serum apolipoprotein
panel(s) for CVD risk stratification and treatment, in comparison to or together with contemporary
blood lipids.
Accomplishments include: Native human serum samples have been secured from the Dutch
NEO study, which consists of ~ 1500 individuals from the general population. It is planned todetermine reference values in these individuals. Moreover, ~5000 obese individuals, at higher riskof developing CVD are included. The classical lipid parameters have been determined in thesesamples at baseline. The collection of 10-year follow up from patient health records, including
cardiovascular endpoints has just been finalized. It is planned to assess the additional value ofthe apolipoprotein panel on top of the classical lipid panel in these individuals. Measurementof these samples at the LUMC has been initiated, and is foreseen to be finalized by the endof 2021. List planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference: The baseline samplesof the NEO study will be measured using the LUMC apolipoprotein method. This method canbe recalibrated against the cRMS once all parts are in place. The reference values will be
determined in these samples, as well as the added value of the quantitation of apolipoproteins(a), A-I, B, C-I, C-II, C-III and E.
Besides the NEO study, study protocols will be developed to be able to investigate the added
value of multiplexed serum apolipoprotein quantitation on top of traditional serum lipids inalternative studies.
Additional Information: There is currently lots of interest from both pharma and the IVDindustry in global standardization of serum apo(a), apoA-I and apoB and in the establishment ofa multiplex Reference Measurement System for apolipoproteins, especially because the current
WHO-IFCC reference materials are running out of stock and because new therapies for Lp(a)/apo(a) lowering are coming to the market.
Outreach: NHLBI in Bethesda, USA invited Drs. Hubert Vesper (HV) and Christa Cobbaert (CC)to a NHLBI workshop in November 2019. Consequently, the message of the upcoming SItraceable IFCC RMS for apo’s has been spread in the USA since that NHLBI meeting. Therefore,36

HV and CC were recently re-invited to participate in a National Lipid Association (NLA) Think
Tank meeting on Lp(a)/apo(a) standardization.
The lab of Professor Marcovina at University of Washington, the founder of the WHO-IFCC RMS
for apo(a), ApoA-I and apoB no longer exists, which means that the current ELISA gold standard
method for the apo’s is no longer in place. The remaining Reference Materials have been given
to CDC (Dr. Hubert Vesper’s lab). Therefore, the necessity for establishing a sustainable RMS
and a network of calibration laboratories is now greater than ever. Funding: For continuing the
IFCC WG-activities, active fund raising has to restart in 2021.
• WG – Pancreatic Enzymes (WG-PE); Chair: Denis Grote-Koska (DE)
During 2020 ongoing progress towards WG-PE terms of reference included:
Term of Reference 1: To develop a primary reference method for pancreatic Amylase in Serum.
Accomplishments include: In 2020 a final draft SOP for the RMP of pancreatic amylase wasdeveloped by the working group. Objecting an interlaboratory comparison different materials
were acquired:- Two human serum pools prepared/provided by the Calibration laboratory in Hannover (Dr.
Grote-Koska)- Two processed materials prepared/provided by MCA Lab (Dr. Weykamp)
Essential reagents were provided by Roche Diagnostics (Dr. Weber). Materials and reagents were
distributed and an interlaboratory comparison was performed to check the status quo of thereference system. Four reference laboratories were involved: RfB-Calibration Laboratory 2 (Dr.
Denis Grote-Koska, Germany), Laboratori de Referència d’Enzimologia Clínica (Dr. Francesca
Canalias Reverter, Spain), LabWest – HagaZiekenhuis (Dr. Marjan Veuger, Netherlands), Roche
Diagnostics (Dr. Friederike Weber, Germany).
The results are convincing, a full evaluation is forthcoming and will be followed by investigationsof uncertainty components to build the uncertainty budget. List planned activities in 2021 forthis Term of Reference: Evaluation of the inter laboratory comparison study is planned. The WG
has to determine if further optimization of the RMP with subsequent investigation is necessary.
Otherwise a completion of verification of the procedure is planned prior to publication.
Term of Reference 2: To develop a primary reference method for pancreatic Lipase in Serum.
Accomplishments include: No further activity is planned prior to finalization of Term ofReference 1.
Term of Reference 3: To support EC-JRC (Joint Research Centre, Directorate F – Health,Consumers and Reference Materials, formerly IRMM) in case of studies and certification ofreference materials for enzymes
Accomplishments include: In 2019 characterization studies of the new ERM reference material
ERMAD456/IFCC of pancreatic amylase were performed by well-respected sites of WG-PE
and others. Stability studies were performed in the calibration laboratory in Hannover for ECJRC. The material is now released and available. In 2020 investigations concerned to stability
monitoring are performed in the RfB-calibration laboratory in Hannover (Dr. Grote-Koska). List
planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference: Activities are depending on the needsof the JRC. So far no plans were communicated.
• WG - Fecal Immunochemical Testing (WG-FIT); Chair: Sally Benton (UK)
During 2020 ongoing progress towards WG-FIT terms of reference included:
Term of Reference 1. To harmonize and/or standardize analysis of haemoglobin in faecal samples
by immunochemistry (FIT). Accomplishments include: A harmonization/ commutability study
protocol was written and ratified by the IFCC-FIT WG. The study commenced in November
2020. Analytical work is being carried out by the research team lead by Dr. Sally Benton at thebowel cancer screening hub in Guildford.
List planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference: The aim is to complete the analyticalaspect of this study in early 2021. Results will be reviewed and a decision made as to whether
37

a commutable standard has been found and whether FIT methods can be harmonised.
Term of Reference 2. To standardize the pre-analytical phase. Accomplishments include:
A decision was made in 2020 that this is not something the working group should focus on.
The pre-analytical phase is vast and a lot of the factors that cause pre-analytical variation are
manufacturer specific and cannot be changed.
List planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference: Remove from the Terms ofreference for the group.
Term of Reference 3. To establish EQA and 3rd party IQC programmes. Accomplishments
include: No progress made in 2020. List planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference:
The FIT-WG will aim to engage with EQA companies to obtain guidance on requirements interms of EQA to help provide the recommendations formed from the group.
Term of Reference 4. To determine impact of assay interference of Hb variants and otherfactors
Accomplishments include:
The group made a decision that there is not much further that can be done on this so it will be
removed from TOR. List planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference: Remove fromthe Terms of reference for the group.
• WG - Cell free DNA and related circulating biomarkers (WG-cfDNA); Chair: Ron van
Schaik (NL)
During 2020 ongoing progress towards WG-cfDNA terms of reference included:
Term of Reference 1. To identify and provide guidance on pre-analytical and analytical aspects for
obtaining good and reproducible results for cfDNA and related circulating biomarkers for clinicaluse, and to guide the correct clinical implementation of these biomarkers. Accomplishments
include: A paper on pre-analytical aspects of cfDNA analysis was written and submitted to
IFCC for approval. The approved manuscript was submitted to CCA Q4 2020. List planned
activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference:Adjust manuscript according to reviewers.
Term of Reference 2. Setting up proficiency testing for cfDNA. Accomplishments include:
EQMN collaboration not further investigated. List planned activities in 2021 for this Term ofReference: Participation in second round proficiency testing to identify additional needs.
Term of Reference 3. Organizing international workshops. Accomplishments include: Aninternational cfDNA workshop in The Netherlands as well at the ESPT Summerschool in Kile
were cancelled due to COVID-19. List planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference:
Organize a cfDNA workshop at the SANTORINI/ESPT congress in Santorini (May 2021), at the
ESPT Congress (Rome, Oct 6-7, 2021) and in Utrecht (Netherlands). Uncertain if COVID allows
meetings. For the Rome meeting, a virtual alternative will be organized. Term of Reference 4.
Defining grant proposals to address unmet needs. Accomplishments include: Not started yet.
List planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference: To be determined.
• WG - Standardization of Procalcitonin assays (WG-PCT); Chair: Vincent Delatour (FR)During 2020 ongoing progress towards WG-PCT terms of reference included:
Term of Reference 1. Develop and validate a reference measurement procedure for PCT
absolute quantification by Stable Isotope Dilution Mass Spectrometry. Accomplishments
include:- Good progress was made on the development of a candidate reference measurement
procedure for PCT absolute quantification by Stable Isotope Dilution Mass Spectrometry.
- Different primary calibrators (peptides and recombinant protein) were produced. Theirpurity was characterized by High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry, and PCT concentration incalibration solutions was determined by Amino Acid Analysis (AAA). For the protein-based
primary calibrator, further experiments are needed to confirm the identity of low abundant
impurities by top-down approaches and correct raw amino-acid analysis results.
- In order to improve method’s sensitivity, sample preparation was thoroughly optimized
38

through development of different separation methods to extract PCT from the other proteins.
The limit of quantification is now 0.25 ng/mL. Method validation is now completed and is
the subject of two scientific publications. The first paper was submitted to Analytical andBioanalytical Chemistry in Dec 2020. The second publication is under preparation and will
be submitted by end 2020 or early 2021.
List planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference:- Finalize purity assessment and value assignments of the protein-based primary calibrator.
- Investigate possible approaches to improve the limit of detection.
Term of Reference 2. Document and understand the variability of results provided by thedifferent commercially available PCT assays. Accomplishments include:- Ten external quality assessment scheme (EQAS) providers from eight different countries
were approached to share results of their PCT EQAS : ANSM in France, CSCQ in Switzerland,
Equalis in Sweden, Instand and RfB in Germany, Labquality in Finland, Probioqual in France,
RCPA in Australia, SKML in The Netherlands and WEQAS in the UK. Between 2014 to 2020,
2220 routine laboratories conducted 27500 PCT measurements using 137 EQA materials
which PCT concentration ranging from 0.05 ng/mL to 43.66 ng/mL (median 3.02 ng/mL).
Different types of serum-based EQA materials were used: fresh pools not spiked withexogenous PCT, frozen materials with and without spiking with exogenous PCT, lyophilizedmaterials with and without spiking with exogenous PCT. The need to improve comparabilityof PCT measurements was evaluated according to between-lab CV%. The mean between
lab CV% was 15.6% but greatly varied across EQA Schemes. In the best cases, a between
lab CV of 6-8% was observed, suggesting that comparability of PCT results is quitesatisfactory but in other surveys, between lab CVs of 20-25% were observed, suggestingthat comparability of PCT results is poor and must be improved. As commutability of EQA
materials was not evaluated, it can be speculated that differences in estimates of between
lab agreement is (at least partially) due to variable commutability levels of the EQA materials.
This confirms the need to evaluate commutability of EQA materials before a conclusion canbe made regarding the need to improve comparability of PCT assays.
- Due to the coronavirus crisis, collection of large single donation in the lab of Prof Tsatsanis
was stopped between March and May and then resumed in June. So far, 23 large single
donations were collected but only 10 of these have a volume sufficient to be measured
by all immunoassays. In parallel, small single donations (leftovers) were collected with theobjective to prepare pools that will be used as EQA materials which commutability will
be evaluated: 123 samples were collected in the lab of Prof Tsatsanis and 450 samples
were collected in the lab of Dr Dupuy. Samples collection will soon be expanded thanks topartners of EMPIR project SEPTIMET.
List planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference:- Agreement and correlation between the different PCT assays will be evaluated through aninterlaboratory comparison involving the most popular PCT assays and relying on samples
of proven commutability.
- The design of the study will be finalized with a focus on the following points:• confirm that frozen samples can be used instead of fresh clinical specimens• establish a list of known interfering substances with the objective to exclude clinicalspecimens with abnormal / elevated concentration of these compounds• determination of the volume needed by each routine assay to conduct measurements• determination of assays’ precision to determine the number of replicates needed tominimize uncertainties and the rate of inconclusive results• determine in what labs measurements will be conducted• invite EQA providers sharing their materials to include these in the study
Term of Reference 3. Evaluate the need for standardization of PCT assays. Accomplishments
include:- EQA data were gathered (see ToR #2) and a review of all published correlation studies was39

conducted.
The ICHCLR identified PCT standardization as high priority with high clinical impact
Consultation of IVD manufacturers was initiated and revealed that the need and demand forstandardization of PCT assays differs in the two following situations:• BRAHMS licensed assays are all calibrated with the Kryptor method. Assay
manufacturers feel that recalibration of BRAHMS PCT assays is not a priority andpossibly appears undesirable because introducing a new reference system based on
IDMS could potentially result in the need to revise clinical decision limits, which could
create confusion in the clinical community. However, using an IDMS RMP as stableanchor reference method could be helpful to monitor stability of the Kryptor method.
• For PCT assays other than BRAHMS PCT assays, there is currently no internationallyagreed reference system and there is a need for assay standardization.
- All WG members agree that commutable EQA materials are needed to accurately estimate
between-method agreement.
List planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference: Organize a commutability study
coupled with a correlation study:- Pursue stakeholder consultation- Maintain and extend manufacturers’ involvement
Term of Reference 4. Evaluate the feasibility for standardization of PCT assays. Accomplishments
include:- Feasibility for standardization of PCT assays will be evaluated after activities planned within
ToR 1 and 2 have been completed.
List planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference:- Finalize validation of the candidate reference method by mass spectrometry- Evaluate if the candidate reference method by mass spectrometry is sufficiently robust at
PCT concentrations of interest and enables to properly establish results traceability to the
SI Units with sufficiently low measurements uncertainty- Establish correlation between the different commercially available PCT assays and thecandidate reference method by mass spectrometry- Seek manufacturers’ involvement and willingness to implement a new traceability chain
Term of Reference 5: Perform standardization of PCT assays, if needed and feasible.
Accomplishments include: The need and feasibility for standardization of PCT assays firstneeds to be evaluated. List planned activities in 2021 for this Term of Reference:
PCT assays will be standardized:- if the IDMS method meets the necessary performance specifications- if the variability of results provided by the different commercially available PCT assays
is considered unacceptable and can be improved through common calibration with
commutable secondary calibrators- if correlation between the IDMS method and routine assays is sufficient- if most assay manufacturers agree on recalibrating their assays-• WG - Continuous Glucose Monitoring (WG-CGM); Chair: Guido Freckmann (DE)
During 2020 ongoing progress towards WG-CDT terms of reference included:
Term of Reference 1. Work package 1 (WP 1): Establish a Traceability Chain to a Defined
Measurand Definition of a Traceability Chain: Establish traceability of glucose values obtainedby continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) to materials and methods of higher metrological order.
Traceability is a prerequisite for an appropriate assessment of accuracy and measurement
uncertainty. Accomplishments include: Discussions about background information andthe methods, performance of one conference call and one on-going e-mail conversation,
preparation of a pre-final consensus document. List planned activities in 2021 for this Termof Reference: Further discussions and input to this work package via conference calls andvia e-mail.
40

Term of Reference 2. Work package 2 (WP 2): CGM Analytical Performance: Procedures &Metrics
1. Establish procedures suitable for assessment of analytical performance of CGM systems
2. Establish metrics and corresponding minimum acceptance criteria for the analytical
performance of CGM systems.
Accomplishments include: Discussions about background information and the methods,
performance of one conference call and one on-going e-mail conversation. List planned activities
in 2021 for this Term of Reference: Further discussions and input to this work package via
conference calls and via e-mail. Next virtual meeting will take place in February 2021.
Term of Reference 3. Work package 3 (WP 3): Work with ISO on a New CGM Guideline
Establishment of standardized procedures and acceptance criteria for CGM systems, covering
mechanical and electromagnetic safety, analytical performance, and ease of use (analogous to
ISO 15197).
Cooperation with ISO should be aimed for, if the International Organization for Standardization(ISO) is interested: The working group is intended to cooperate with ISO to define acceptableprocedures and acceptance criteria used to assess analytical performance criteria of
CGM systems, with similar scope as that of ISO 15197, which defines procedures andacceptance criteria for systems for self-monitoring of blood glucose. In the future, CGM will
also play a role in hospitals. Criteria for the use in in-clinic settings need to be establishedas well. Accomplishments include: Internal discussions via a conference call and via
e-mail conversation which is on-going. List planned activities in 2021 for this Term ofReference: Further internal discussions and input to this work package via conference
calls and via e-mail. Planned contact and cooperation with the International Organizationfor Standardization (ISO).
Publications by Committees and Working Groups:
C-MD:- Payne DA, Russomando G, Linder MW, Baluchova K, Ashavaid T, Steimer W, Ahmad-Nejad
P; IFCC Committee for Molecular Diagnostics (C-MD). External quality assessment(EQA) and alternative assessment procedures (AAPs) in molecular diagnostics:
findings of an international survey. Clin Chem Lab Med. 2020 May 8:/j/cclm.aheadof-print/cclm-2020-0101/cclm-2020-0101.xml. doi: 10.1515/cclm-2020-0101. Online
ahead of print. PMID: 32383687-

Ahmad-Nejad P, Ashavaid T, Vacaflores Salinas A, Huggett J, Harris K, Linder MW,
Baluchova K, Steimer W, Payne DA, IFCC Committee for Molecular Diagnostics (C-MD).
Current and Future Challenges in Quality Assurance in Molecular Diagnostics – in
Revision; submitted to CCA

C-TLM:		- The results of RELA2020 are published on the website (http://www.dgkl-rfb.de:81).
C-RIDL:- Ozarda Y (as one of the co-author in a related-review article that has been publishedin Adv.Lab. Med): Big data and reference intervals: rationale, current practices,
harmonization and standardization prerequisites and future perspectives of indirect
determination of reference intervals using routine data (https://doi.org/10.1515/
almed-2020-0034 | Published online: 07 Aug 2020).
C-STFT:		
• Vesper HW, Van Uytfanghe K, Hishinuma A, Raverot V, Patru MM, Danilenko U, van
41

Herwaarden T, Shimizu E. Implementing reference systems for thyroid function
tests – A collaborative effort. Submitted to CCA
In preparation• Ribera A, Zhang L, Dabbs-Brown A, Sugahara O, Poynter K, Van Uytfanghe K, Shimizu E,
van Herwaarden T, Botelho JC, Danilenko U, Vesper HW. Development of equilibrium
dialysis ID-UPLC-MS/MS candidate reference measurement procedure for freethyroxine in human serum.
• Standard Operating Procedure “Reference Measurement Procedure for
Determination of Free Thyroxine in Human Serum by Equilibrium Dialysis Isotope
Dilution-liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (ID LC-MS/MS)“.
• Ribera A, Ribeiro CMB, Poynter K, Botelho JC, Van Uytfanghe K, Danilenko U, Vesper
HW. Preanalytical considerations for free thyroxine and triiodothyronine assays.
C-HAT:- Monogioudi, E., Martos, G., Sheldon, J., Meroni, P. L., Trapmann, S., Zegers,
I. Development of a candidate certified reference material for anti-beta 2
glycoprotein I IgG – commutability studies, Clin Chem Lab Med 2021; 59(2): 325–332
C-BM:		- Cavalier E, Lukas P, Bottani M, Aarsand AK, Ceriotti F, Coşkun A, Díaz-Garzón J, FernàndezCalle P, Guerra E, Locatelli M, Sandberg S, Carobene A; European Federation of Clinical
Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine Working Group on Biological Variation and IOFIFCC Committee on Bone Metabolism Osteoporos Int. European Biological Variation
Study (EuBIVAS): within- and between-subject biological variation estimates ofβ-CTX, PINP, osteocalcin, intact-FGF 23 and uCuP-MGP - a cooperation between
the EFLM Working Group on Biological Variation and the International Osteoporosis
Foundation-International Federation of Clinical Chemistry Committee on BoneMetabolism. 2020 Aug;31(8):1461-1470. doi: 10.1007/s00198-020-05362-8. Epub 2020
Apr 8. PMID: 32270253.
-

Vasikaran SD, Bhattoa HP, Eastell R, Heijboer AC, Jørgensen NR, Makris K, Ulmer C,
Kanis JA, Cooper C, Silverman S, Cavalier E. Harmonization of commercial assays for
PINP; the way forward. Osteoporos Int. 2020 Mar;31(3):409-412. doi: 10.1007/s00198020-05310-6.

-

Cavalier E, Eastell R, Rye Jørgensen N, Makris K, Tournis S, Vasikaran S, Kanis JA,
Cooper C, Pottel H, Morris HA; IFCC-IOF Joint Committee for Bone Metabolism (C-BM).
A multicenter study to evaluate harmonization of assays for N-terminal propeptideof type I procollagen (PINP): a report from the IFCC-IOF Joint Committee for BoneMetabolism. Clin Chem Lab Med. 2019 Sep 25;57(10):1546-1555. doi: 10.1515/cclm2019-0174.

WG-SHbA2:		
- Mosca A, Paleari R, Harteveld CL, on behalf of the IFCC ICSH. Joint Working Group forstandardization of HbA2. A roadmap for the standardization of hemoglobin A2. Clin
Chim Acta 2021; 512:185-90, doi.org/10.1016/j.cca.2020.11.008
WG-CMT:		
- Miller WG, Budd J, Greenberg N, Weykamp C, Althaus H, Schimmel H, Panteghini M,
Delatour V, Ceriotti F, Keller T, Hawkins D, Burns C, Rej R, Camara JE, MacKenzie F, vander Hagen E, Vesper H, for the IFCC Working Group on Commutability. IFCC Working
Group Recommendations for Correction of Bias Caused by Noncommutability of42

a Certified Reference Material Used in the Calibration Hierarchy of an End-User
Measurement Procedure. Clin Chem 2020;66:769-78.
WG-ID:			
Participation of several WG members (Seger, Langman, Kunicki, Pawinski, Wieland, Shipkova)
in the preparation of the guidance publication: Bergan S. et al. Mycophenolate Personalized
Therapy: Consensus Report by the International Association of Therapeutic Drug
Monitoring and Clinical Toxicology. Therapeutic Drug Monitoring, 2021, in press.
WG-APO MS:
1. Cobbaert CM, Althaus H, Begcevic Brkovic I, Ceglarek U, Coassin S, Delatour V,
Deprez L, Dikaios I, Dittrich J, Hoofnagle AN, Kostner GM, Kronenberg F, Kuklenyik Z,
Prinzing U, Vesper HW, Zegers I, Ruhaak LR; IFCC Working Group for Standardizationof Apolipoproteins by Mass Spectrometry (WG-APO-MS). Towards an SI-Traceable
Reference Measurement System for Seven Serum Apolipoproteins Using BottomUp Quantitative Proteomics: Conceptual Approach Enabled by Cross-Disciplinary/
Cross-Sector Collaboration. Clin Chem. doi: 10.1093/clinchem/hvaa239. In press.
2. Ruhaak LR, Cobbaert CM. Quantifying apolipoprotein(a) in the era of proteoforms
and precision medicine. Clin Chim Acta. 2020 Dec;511:260-268. doi: 10.1016/j.
cca.2020.10.010.
3. A manuscript on the development of a harmonized LC-MS based reference method,
including results of the ring trial performed during the first apo(a) commutability
study, as well as the fundamental choices made and performance of the method
achieved is in preparation and expected to be finalized in Q1 2021.
WG-FIT:- Benton SC, Symonds E, Djedovic N, Jones S, Deprez L, Kocna P, Auge JM, on behalf of
the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry Faecal Immunochemical Test Working
Group (IFCC FIT-WG). Faecal Immunochemical Tests for Haemoglobin: Analytical
Challenges and Potential Solutions. Submitted to Clinica Chimica Acta journal:
WG-cfDNA:- Danesi R, Lo YMD, Oellerich M, Beck J, Galbiati S, del Re M, Lianidou E, Neumaier
M, van Schaik RHN, on behalf of the IFCC Working Group cfDNA. What do we need
to obtain high quality circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) for routine diagnostic test
in oncology? - Practical recommendations on pre-analytical issues by the IFCC
workgroup cfDNA. (CCA, revision in progress).
WG-PCT:- Activities conducted by IFCC WG-PCT are described in a paper that was accepted early
January 2021 for publication in the IFCC SD Special issue of CCA.
- Results of the PCT EQA schemes and an analysis of all published correlation studies are
subject to a publication that was submitted to clinical chemistry in Dec. 2020. All EQA
providers involved in the study are co-authors of the paper. The article is currently in revision.
- An article describing optimization of the sample preparation of the candidate reference
method was submitted to analytical and bioanalytical chemistry in Dec 2020. The paper iscurrently under review.
- A second article describing the validation of the candidate reference method is underpreparation and will be submitted early 2021.
WG-CGM:- Standardization process of continuous glucose monitoring: traceability and43performance.
Published in Clinica Chimica Acta, 2021.
- Continuous Glucose Monitoring – What should be optimized and considered in the
future?
Scientific short, submitted to American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC), 2020.
Philippe Gillery, SD Chair and Joseph Passarelli, SD Secretary

44

EDUCATION AND MANAGEMENT DIVISION (EMD)
The EMD EC was supposed to meet on 2-3 April 2020 in Milan but the meeting was cancelled
due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The EMD EC met several times in 2020 via Zoom: Monday,
June 22nd 2020; Tuesday, July 14th 2020 where a meeting was also held with Chairs of EMD
Committees, Working Groups and Special Projects; Thursday, October 8th 2020 and Wednesday,
December 2nd 2020.
Due to the establishment of new IFCC Task Forces, namely, Task Force on Global eLearning/
eAcademy and Task Force on Global Lab Quality, the following EMD Committees and Special
Project were terminated at the end of 2020 due to overlapping objectives and activities: Distance
Learning (C-DL), Analytical Quality (C-AQ), Proficiency Testing (C-PT) and Developing Quality
Competence in Medical Laboratories (DQCML). Many of the activities planned for 2020 by the
EMD functional groups that involved face-to-face meetings/workshops and symposia were
either postponed, cancelled or held virtually.
Prof. Leslie Lai’s second and final term as the EMD Chair ended on 31st December 2020.
 Committees• C-Clinical Molecular Biology Curriculum (C-CMBC); Chair: Verena Haselmann (DE)
1. Execution of the 1st C-CMBC Advanced Course in Molecular Diagnostics that was held in
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 29th till 31st of January 2020. This course was organised incollaboration with Dr Raja Elina, President of the MACB. The programme and especiallythe in-silico training units (e.g. assay validation, evaluation of ddPCR results, evaluationof NGS data sets) were highly appreciated by the 28 participants.
2. The annual meeting of the C-CMBC could not take place due to the fact that the IFCCWorldLab in Seoul was postponed to 2022. A Committee meeting was held during theAdvanced C-CMBC course in Malaysia as well as during the beginner´s course in La
Paz, Bolivia. We were able to rework the outline and protocols of the beginner´s courseand substantially improve the in-silico part. However, meetings with potential futureapplicant country representatives could not take place due to the current circumstances.
3. T he C-CMBC Beginner´s Course took place in La Paz, Bolivia, from 1st till 7th of March
2020. In total, 36 students (instead of usually 20) participated in the course. This course
attracted a great deal of public attention due to the first reports of COVID-19 infections
within Bolivia and the increasing interest in Molecular Genetics. Thus, the committee chair
was invited to a TV interview together with the local host, Dr. Vacaflores. Addtionally, alltutors were interviewed about genetics and the course which was broadcasted on TV
and streaming platforms.
4. The 2nd C-CMBC Advanced Course that was supposed to have taken place in Turkey,
had to be postponed until further notice. New organisation alignments will take place
upon stabilisation of current health care situation.
5. A telephone conference and several calls between the C-CMBC members took placethroughout 2020. Our new junior member Rodrigo Pessoa Rojas from Bolivia will apply
for a poster presentation as part of the next WorldLab meeting.
6. A report of the IFCC Beginner´s Course in La Paz was written in collaboration with the
new junior member and has been published in the IFCC eNews.
7. As a result of the beginner´s course in La Paz, Bolivia, the junior member will extend
his specialisation in Genetics by undertaking a six-month attachment at the Institute ofClinical Chemistry of the University Hospital in Mannheim, Germany.
8. PUBLICATIONS: None•

C-Analytical Quality (C-AQ); Chair: Annette Thomas (UK)
1. Further presentations have been completed following workshops and plenary lectures
conducted in Malawi. These need to be formatted for the eAcademy.
45

2. Workshops:
a. Workshop held in Lahore, Pakistan on 10th and 11th January 2020 in collaboration
with DQCML. However, Prof Amann was unable to gain entry into the country
and Annette Thomas was the sole IFCC representative delivering her own and Prof
Amann’s presentations. Annette Thomas also facilitated the workshop with thesupport of Professor Asim Mumtaz and conducted 3 laboratory visits on Day 3. A
full report was provided to the EMD Chair in February 2020.
b. Workshop and Annual Conference in Lilongwe, Malawi, 19th to 20th February
2020. “Quality Laboratory Medicine: a driver for better healthcare in Malawi”. Dr
Tony Badrick and Annette Thomas attended as IFCC-Abbott Visiting Lecturers.
Workshop topics organised were “What is quality in laboratory medicine and how
is it measured?” and “How can EQA improve the quality of laboratory medicine?”
Both also gave plenary lectures: “Experiences gained from international projects
to introduce EQA”, and “The role of the laboratory in diagnosing and monitoring
diabetes”.
3. To develop a Quality Ladder: 4 chapters are now complete: – Pre-anaytical errors, EQA,
post analytical errors and Quality management. Unfortunately the IQC module was notcompleted due to the author’s busy work schedule. The Committee Chair has asked
for contribution from an alternative expert in this area. The final versions were due tobe discussed at the face to face meeting organised in Seoul which was postponed.
Annette Thomas will review and edit the drafts received to date.
4. Patient-Based Real Time Quality Control (PBRTQC) project – Three publications havebeen produced to date by this very active subgroup:
i. Patient-Based Real-Time Quality Control: Review and Recommendations. Tony
Badrick, Andreas Bietenbeck, Mark A. Cervinski, Alex Katayev, Huub H. van
Rossum, Tze Ping Loh. DOI: 10.1373/clinchem.2019.305482. Published in July
2019.
ii. Recommendations for laboratory informatics specifications needed for theapplication of patient-based real time quality control. Tze Ping Loh, Andreas
Bietenbeck, Mark A Cervinski, Alex Katayev, Huub H van Rossum, Tony Badrick.
Clin Chim Acta 2019; 495: 625-629.
iii. Implementation of patient-based real-time quality control.T Badrick, A
Bietenbeck, A Katayev, HH van Rossum, TP Loh, Critical Reviews in ClinicalLaboratory Sciences, 1-16, May 2020.
5. New member, Tony Badrick, joined the Committee in 2020; Alexander Haliassos
completed his 2 terms of office.
6. As the C-AQ has now been terminated – the PBRTQC will need to be supported underan alternative Committee.
7. PUBLICATIONS: see point 4.
•

46

C-Evidence-Based Laboratory Medicine (C-EBLM); Chair: Annalise Zemlin (ZA)
1. Submission of Talks to IFCC eAcademy.
Proposed for 2020:
a. Andrew Don-Wauchope (ADW) to finalise talks on Guidelines.
b. Annalise Zemlin (AZ) and Karina Rodriguez-Capote (KRC) – talks from Morocco
Symposium (EBLM – what it is and what it is not and EBLM and Personalised
Medicine – Friends or Foes?).
c. AZ and Seema Barghava (SB) – talks from Jaipur Symposium (Folic Acid
Supplementation – is there enough evidence to justify it? and Prevalence of
micronutrient deficiencies – do we need fortification?).
d. Nuria Giménez Gomez (NG) – will develop a talk on PSA Guidelines with her coauthor.

e. SB – Six sigma – need quality for evidence
f. ADW – economic evaluations
g. Outstanding talks from this year: Bias and STARD guidelines (AZ)
h. All proposed talks need to first be sent to AZ so that can first be discussed with Prof
Loralie Langman to see if suitable for eAcademy
Outcome 2020:
a. SB and AZ submitted talks:i. SB: Hypertension and Six sigma – need quality for evidence.
ii. AZ: Glycation – VLP talk presented in Egypt February 2020; must add MCQ
for talks (POCT, EBLM and Audits)iii. These talks were sent to Prof Loralie Langman and feedback has been
received.
b. Talks from ADW, KRC and NG postponed to 2021 due to pandemic.
2. EBLM Questionnaire and Survey
Proposed for 2020a.
Survey was presented as a poster at EuroMedLab and AACC – now in the processof writing up as a publication. Aim to complete in 2020 – members on draft 3. For
possible submission to CCLM and if rejected to eJIFCC (all members co-authors).
b.
2nd part of survey was performed in Spain and presented as poster at EuroMedLabby NG (Applying EBLM in Lab Medicine). Survey was translated and sent to IFCC
members in November 2019. The aim was to analyse the results and present as aposter at CSCC, AACC in 2020 (all members as co-authors).
Outcome 2020:a. Committee is in process of writing up original survey for submission. NG has
translated and will place on a Google Drive.
b. Abstract 2nd survey was submitted to CSCC for a poster presentation andaccepted. Although congress was cancelled, manuscript was published in Clinical
Biochemistry.
3. Guideline Review
Proposed 2020:
a. Wytze Oosterhuis resigned as member and never sent data of guideline appraisalthat he performed.
b. Begin guideline appraisal in 2020
Outcome 2020: Guideline appraisal project postponed due to pandemic.
4. Congress Attendance
Proposed 2020:
a. CSCC June 2020
I. Symposium on EBLM accepted (AZ, SB, ADW and KRC)
II. Will apply in the new year for a workshop (NG and KRC)
III. Possible round table session
IV. Poster new survey results (all members)
b. AACC 2020
I. Applied for joint IFCC-AACC symposium
II. Poster new survey resultsc. Seoul 2020
I. Poster new survey resultsd. Individual members activities
I. AZ: AFCC and India
II. AZ and SB – possible symposium in New Delhi late 2020
Outcome:a. Chemical Pathology Conference in Alexandria, Egypt - SB and AZ attended as VLP– presented Six Sigma (SB) and Folate supplementation – what is the evidence? and47

EBLM and Audits (AZ) on behalf of committee.
b. CSCC 2020 cancelled due to pandemic. However, EBLM symposium was presented
virtually on 30 July 2020:• Application of EBLM in the Age of Precision Medicine - AZ
• Guidelines Implementation – ADW• Evidence for implementing point of care testing – KRC• Stopping tests and starting new test: Application of EBLM – SB
These talks were well received and led to interesting discussion. The questions wereaddressed and written up for the CSCC October newsletter.
c. Seoul 2020 – SB was invited to present at symposium on EBLM – postponed to2022.
d. AACC 2020 – joint symposium with AACC Personalized Medicine Division accepted.
Congress cancelled due to pandemic but was presented virtually on 14 December
2020:• EBLM – friend or foe? – AZ
• EBLM – what it is and what it is not – KRC
5. Possible publications
Proposed 2020:
a. EBLM survey – all members. On version 3 – for completion 1st half 2020.
b. Systematic reviews – ADW and committee – for completion 2nd half 2020.
c. Possible review on EBLM and personalised medicine (with Xander van Wijk from
AACC and all members. Start 1st draft 2020).
Outcome 2020: Survey and review on systematic reviews postponed due to pandemic.
6. 6.EBLM Website and social media:
Proposed 2020:
a. Members to send all EBLM-related activities for last 5 years to AZ for updating.
b. Members to send all EBLM-related activities for last 5 years to AZ for updating.
c. Update links on website.
Outcome 2020: Postponed due to pandemic.
7. AZ – Invited Speaker Omnia Health – Live Africa October 2020 – Evidence of biochemical
tests in COVID-19.
8. New member R. Khalil – from Egypt (Young scientist), KRC is now a consultant.
9. PUBLICATIONS: CSCC poster abstract – Clinical Biochemistry•48

C-Clinical Laboratory Management (C-CLM); Chair: Praveen Sharma (IN)
1. Perform one conference call meeting in February 2020.
a. Performed on February 29, 2020, via Skype with the attendance of all full-members
and two corresponding members.
b. A second video conference call meeting was performed on July 09, 2020 with theattendance of all full members and three corresponding members.
2. To complete the textual learning materials and recording the presentations in association
with pursuing the workshops related to the Laboratory Leadership Training Certificate
Program.
a. Revised Title: Basic Problem Solving Tools for Quality Improvement - A Pocket Guide
for Laboratory Professionals.
b. The second draft of the chapters has been circulated for editing. The release forpublication is due and postponed to Q2 in 2021.
3. To finish the monograph entitled “Practical Approaches to Quality Systems Set-up forCompliance with the Internationally – Acceptable Requirements” (formerly known as a
joint monograph with C-AQ, the title has been revised) which has been under review in2018 and 2019 and publish it within the first quarter of 2020.
• This project is due and will be published in Q1 of 2021.

4. To conduct at least one workshop.
• One symposia was scheduled for IFCC WorldLab at Seoul, but now with the
postponement of WorldLab, this symposium will be held in June 2022. A new
application on the same agenda will be considered for upcoming meetings dependingon the COVID-19 status worldwide.
• An AACC University by C-CLM was supposed to have been held during the AACC
meeting in July 2020, Chicago. However, this event has been postponed to 2021. The
date is to be determined by the AACC.
• The next meeting in which C-CLM will participate is POCT: Making The Point to beheld during September 6-7, 2021 in Rome, Italy. The following talks will be given by
the following speakers:• Training and competency strategies for point-of-care testing (Sedef Yenice)• Leading POCT networks: Operating POCT programs across multiple sites and vastgeographical areas (Edward Randell).
• POCT in Developing Countries (Praveen Sharma)
5. To provide at least two presentations to the eAcademy.
• Prof Aye Aye Khine Wamono has already provided two presentations to the eAcademy.
• Additionally, according to the VLP requirements, SY and ER have provided copies of
their presentations and the slide scripts to the eAcademy.
6. To produce the following monographs which have been in progress since 2019:• Basic Problem Solving Tools or Basic Tools for Quality Improvement• Project Management Basics for Laboratory Leaders
The release for publication is planned by Q2 in 2021.
7. C-CLM has submitted a symposium proposal entitled “Sustaining high quality clinicallaboratory services in a rapidly changing world” for the COLABIOCLI Regional Federation
Congress, Leon, Mexico, 2022.
8. A symposium proposal of C-CLM on ”Essential leadership skills: shaping
future leaders for success in laboratory management” was accepted by the
IFCC WorldLab Seoul Congress Organising Committee for
May 27, 2020.
Time: 14:30-16:30, Room: #105 (1st Floor Coex, Max capacity: 150 seats). This has
been postponed to the new WorldLab dates in June 2022.
9. The functional meeting of C-CLM was scheduled to be held on May 26, 2020, at the IFCCWorldLab Congress in Seoul, South Korea. Due to postponement of IFCC WorldLab, thefunctional meeting of C-CLM is now scheduled to be held during EuroMedLab 2021.
10. Apart from the previous event to be held in 2020, another AACC University programme on‘From Trial to Innovation: Embracing Disruption and Challenge in Leadership Excellence’has been proposed to the Organising Committee to be held during the AACC Annual
Meeting in 2021.
11. Webinar Speaker/Moderator• PS presented a talk on “Co-morbidities associated with COVID-19” in the webinarorganised by SNIBE entitled “Serological markers in the treatment and managementof COVID-19”.
• PS was the speaker of the first webinar of Association of Clinical Biochemists of India(ACBI) webinar series. He delivered a talk on “Role of Biochemical investigations in
COVID-19”.
• PS was the moderator of a webinar organised by SNIBE entitled “COVID-19: Immune
response and Clinical Diagnostic”
Conference participation• PS was an invited speaker and delivered a symposium talk on “External Quality
Assurance System in Clinical Chemistry: Present Status in India” at the 61st Annual
Meeting of KSLM-LMCE Congress, 2020.
49

12. PUBLICATIONS:
i. Mitra P, Misra S, Sharma P. COVID-19 Pandemic in India: What Lies Ahead. Ind J Clin
Biochem. 2020;35(3):257–9. https://doi.org/10.1007/S12291-020-00886-6
ii. Lingeswaran M, Goyal T, Ghosh R, Suri S, Mitra P, Misra S, et al. Inflammation,
Immunity and Immunogenetics in COVID-19: A Narrative Review. Ind J Clin Biochem.
2020;35(3):260–73. https://doi.org/10.1007/S12291-020-00897-3
iii. Mitra P, Suri S, Goyal T, Misra R, Singh K, Garg MK, et al. Association of Comorbidities
with Coronavirus Disease 2019: A Review. Annals of the National Academy of Medical
Sciences (India). 2020 (4); s-0040-1714159. https://doi.org/10.1055/S-0040-1714159
iv. Ladha N, Bhardwaj P, Charan J, Mitra P, Goyal JP, Sharma P, et al. Association ofEnvironmental Parameters with COVID-19 in Delhi, India. Ind J Clin Biochem [Internet].
2020 Aug 19 [cited 2020 Aug 23]; Available from: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/
s12291-020-00921-6
v. Charan J, Kaur R, Bhardwaj P, Kanchan T, Mitra P, Yadav D, et al. Snapshot of COVID-19
Related Clinical Trials in India. Ind J Clin Biochem [Internet]. 2020 Aug 10 [cited 2020
Aug 23]; Available from: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12291-020-00918-1•

50

C-Distance Learning (C-DL); Chair: Loralie Langman (US)
1. Work with VLP speakers and invite them to contribute their talks to filling the gaps in the
curricula where we do not have presentations already in the eAcademy.
2 Continue to identify and recruit potential speakers working in conjunction with theeAcademy coordinators to fill in the gaps in the curricula.

Name

Topic

Invitation

Reply Acceptance

M. Plebani

Quality and patient safety in laboratory medicine

08/22/2019

y11/19/19

M. Plebani

Uncertainty in laboratory medicine

08/22/2019

y11/19/19

K. Adeli

Lipid guidelines: emerging evidence on importance of nonfasting and postprandial lipids

08/22/2019

y08/25/19

B. Gouget

Building bioethics into the future of lab medicine

08/22/2019

C. Cobbaert

Apolipoprotein profiling for addressing residual cardiovascular
risk

08/22/2019

y10/23/19

E. Jacobs

Patient Safety: A Quality System Approach to POCT QC / QA

08/22/2019

S. YeniceDeveloping a Roadmap for Laboratory Utilization Management
Program

10/15/2019

S.
Parthasarthy

Aproprotein E, Alzheimer, Atherosclerosis, Inflammation,
Oxidative stress

10/15/2019

y10/15/19

E. Randel

Promotion of Appropriate Laboratory Test Utilization: From
Financial Accountability to Appropriateness and Quality of Care

10/15/2019

y10/16/19

T. Annesley

Principles of Scientific Writing

12/30/2019

N. RifaiPublication Ethics

12/12/2019

y12/16/19

A. Zemlin

Hyperglycaemia: Past, Present and Future12/31/2019

y01/02/20

S. Bhargava

Achieved Six Sigma: What next?

12/31/2019

R. Erasmus

Vitamin D Supplementation: What is the Evidence?

12/31/2019

A. Thomas

The Role of the Laboratory in Diagnosing and Monitoring
Diabetes

12/31/2019

y01/10/20

A. WuImplementation of High Sensitivity Cardiac Troponin for AcuteCoronary Syndromes

02/10/2020

A. Wu

High Resolution Mass Spectrometry for Drugs of Abuse Testing

02/10/2020

W. Oosterhuis

Measurement Uncertainty, Total Error and Analytical Performance
Specifications

02/10/2020

D. Gruson

Interference in Immunological Assays

02/10/2020

y

02/11/20

D. Gruson

Thyroid and Infertility

02/10/2020

y

02/11/20

3. In conjunction with the C-IeL, record and publish the above-noted contents.
Please see C-IeL report for the list of recorded and published contents.
4. Work with AACC/Nader Rifai to get the Pearls translated into Spanish and co-publish
with eAcademy. Please see C-IeL report for the list of recorded and published content.
5. The C-DL membership was disbanded in August of 2020, following notification of thecommittee’s discontinuation. The Chair has been working solo tying up loose ends forthe remainder of the year.
• C-Education in the Use of Biomarkers in Diabetes (C-EUBD); Chair: Garry John (UK)
Like most other groups, most activity has either been postponed or cancelled due to COVID-19.
1. 1.Work with the Shanghai Center for Clinical Laboratory and the Chinese Diabetes
Society (CDS) to develop a Laboratory Certification Programme based on the now
operating Manufacturers Certification Programme. Postponed due to COVID-19
2. Continue to develop the EuroA1c study, expanding into new countries. To write an
update paper describing the current situation of HbA1c quality based on Sigmametrics.
Under strict COVID-19 restrictions EuroA1c trial was completed. Paper describing latest
surveys is currently being written.
Annual Network inter-comparison study completed
3. Start working with the German Laboratory and Diabetes National Societies to introduce
standardised reporting of results across Germany. This will be a long-term project taking
several years to complete.
Postponed due to COVID-19
4. Finalise the WHO Laboratory Handbook. This continues to take time due to bureaucracy,
but should be completed this year.
Postponed due to COVID-19.
5. Deliver two Symposia at the IFCC WorldLab meeting in Seoul.
Postponed until 2022 due to COVID-19.
6. Develop a position paper on the use of HbA1c for diagnosis to include standardisedguidelines. Evidence of different practices will be collected from relevant societies(clinical and laboratory).
Postponed due to COVID-19.
7. Develop a symposium for submission to the IFCC-EFLM EuroMedLab Munich 2021.
Postponed until November 2021 due to COVID-19.
8. Develop an information strategy for workshops on key topics in collaboration with
African Federation.
Postponed due to COVID-19.
9. Two additional planned symposia cancelled due to COVID-19.
10. The committee and committee members have been approached by several manufacturers
to deliver webinars. Manufacturers have stated that the committee provides a valuable
source of experts for educational programmes.
11. Webinars delivered by committee members.

5112. PUBLICATIONS
i. Lenters-Westra E, English E. Are hemoglobin A1c point-of-care analyzers fit for
purpose? The story continues Clin Chem Lab Med (Accepted/In press) Oct 2020.
Barron, E., Misra, S., English, E., John, G., Sampson, M., Bachmann, M. O., Barth,J., Oliver, ii. N., Alberti, G., Bakhai, C., O’Neill, S., Young, B., Wareham, N. J., Khunti,
K., Jebb, S., Smith, J. & Valabhji, J., Experience of Point-of-Care HbA1c testing in the
English National Health Service Diabetes Prevention Programme: an observational
study. BMJ Open Diabetes Research and Care (Accepted/In press) 21 Sep 2020.
iii. Butler AE, English E, Kilpatrick ES, Östlundh L, Chemaitelly HS, Abu-Raddad LJ et
al. Diagnosing type 2 diabetes using Haemoglobin A1c: A systematic review andmeta-analysis of the diagnostic cut point based on microvascular complications.
Acta Diabetologica. 2020 Sep 11 Accepted/In Press.
iv. Lenters-Westra E, English E. Investigating the Quality of POCT Devices for HbA1c:
What Are Our Next Steps? J Diabetes Sci Technol. 2019 Nov, 13(6):1154-1157.
v. Arsene F Hobabagabo, Nana H Osei-Tutu, Thomas Hormenu, Elyssa M Shoup, Christopher
W DuBose, Lilian S Mabundo, Joon Ha, Arthur Sherman, Stephanie T Chung, David B
Sacks, Anne E Sumner. Improved Detection of Abnormal Glucose Tolerance in Africans:
The Value of Combining Hemoglobin A1c With Glycated Albumin. Diabetes Care. 2020
Oct;43(10):2607-2613. doi: 10.2337/dc20-1119. Epub 2020 Aug 14.
vi. Sampson M, Clark A, Bachmann M, Garner N, Irvine L, Howe A, Greaves C, Auckland
S, Smith J, Turner J, Rea D, Rayman G, Dhatariya K, John WG, Barton G, Usher
R, Ferns C, Pascale M; Norfolk Diabetes Prevention Study (NDPS) Group. Lifestyle
Intervention With or Without Lay Volunteers to Prevent Type 2 Diabetes in People With
Impaired Fasting Glucose and/or Nondiabetic Hyperglycemia: A Randomized Clinical
Trial. JAMA Intern Med. 2020 Nov 2:e205938. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.5938.
Online ahead of print.PMID: 33136119.
•

52

C-Cardiac Biomarkers (C-CB); Chair: Fred Apple (US)
1. Finalise Clinical Scorecard Study for hs-cTn assay comparability. As reported, specimen
analyses (960 patients) from 3 cohorts (Hennepin, Mayo, Scotland) were completed on
all 9 assays. Clinical data will be merged in early January 2020. Plan in 2020 will be tosubmit educational abstracts to both the IFCC meeting in Korea (January 2020 deadline)
and AACC in Chicago (February 2020 deadline), as well as prepare and submit at least
2 manuscripts.
Report: Study was completed for all measurements on 8 hs-cTn assays. Initial statisticalanalysis has been completed. Initial findings will be presented at the 12 January 2021
Zoom C-CB meeting with C-CB members and corporate representatives. Plan is to start
preparation of manuscript and abstract submissions.
2. Organise and submit proposals for workshop and or symposium presentations for IFCC
and industry sponsored meetings pertaining to educational guidelines on hs-cTn andnatriuretic peptide assays. Apple is an invited speaker at the 37th Nordic Congress in
Medical Biochemistry 9-12 June 2020 in Trondheim, Norway.
Report: As we all know COVID-19 pandemic put a stoppage to all meetings in person.
However, a few presentations were successfully and virtually made by some members:a. Kavsak: at 2020 CSCC virtual meeting-2020 Educational Recommendations on
Cardiac Biomarkers: An Update from the IFCC Committee on Clinical Applications of
Cardiac Bio-Markers;
b. Kavsak & Lam: at 2020 CSCC virtual meeting: Latest IFCC Recommendations for
Natriuretic Peptides in Heart Failure - Analytics and Clinical Considerations;c. Apple & Jaffe: at 2020 AACC virtual meeting: High-sensitivity cardiac troponin in theclinical laboratory and in clinical practice.
3. Hire an APP development group/person, in collaboration with the diagnostics companies,

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

to build, test and go to production, and maintain an APP based on high sensitivity
cardiac troponin and natriuretic peptide assays, utilising educational materials that havebeen published by the C-CB. The goal is to educate clinicians in emergency medicine,cardiology, internal medicine and surgery, as well as our colleagues in laboratory
medicine, in the analytical and clinical aspects of cardiac biomarker assays.
Report: This activity will be carried over to 2021, as the challenge and costs of building
and implementing an APP has been slow, especially during COVD-19 lock-down.
Planned future IFCC C-CB Meetings: South Korea May 2020, AACC Chicago July 2020,
New Hampshire October 2020.
Report: Both South Korea and New Hampshire meetings have been rescheduled to 2022
and 2021, respectively. C-CB looking towards 2021, with proposals for 2021 activities
being planned.
Finalise three new educational cardiac troponin initiatives for manuscripts:
a. continue ongoing collaborative effort between AACC Academy and IFCC C-CB toinitiate a white paper on biological variation/RCVs/deltas;
b. new collaboration with the IFCC POC committee initiated regarding preparation of apublication on POC troponin assays and education materials addressing the current
state of art of POC assays;c. provide an educational paper for the January 2021 Clinical Chemistry special CV
issue in the ABCs on implementation of hs-assays in laboratory and clinical practice.
d. Collaborative paper with EFLM for special issue of CCA paper.
Report: We had success in having the following manuscripts accepted, and soon to be
in print soon.
a. Apple FS , Fantz CR, Collinson PO. Implementation of high-sensitivity and point ofcare cardiac troponin assays into practice: some different thoughts . Clin Chem 2020
accepted; in press January 2021 issue.
b. Kavsak PA, Hammarsten O, Worster A, Smith SW, Apple FS. Cardiac troponin testingin patients with COVID-19: a strategy for testing and reporting results. Clin Chem
2020: doi.org/10.1093/clinchem/hvaa225; in press January 2021 issue.
c. Wu AHB, Kavsak PA, Aakre KM, Christenson RH, Apple FS, Peacock WF, HollanderJE, de Lemos JA, Morrow D, Januzzi J, Jaffe AS. Lot to lot variation for commercial
high sensitivity cardiac troponin: can we realistically report down to the assay’s limit
of detection. Clin Chem 2020; doi:10.1093/clinchem/hvaa160.
Continue to update table postings on the IFCC C-CB webpage for the Troponin & NP
Analytical Assay Characteristics Tables 2 to 3 times yearly.
Report: We continued to post updated tables (2 updates in 2020), under the guidance ofDr Amy Saenger and the help of corporate members.
Continue to distribute Educational Materials addressing cardiac troponin and natriuretic
peptide assays using mouse-pads and stick-drives at national and international IFCC,
Laboratory Medicine, Cardiology and Emergency Medicine meetings; that include PDFs
of the growing list of published documents from the C-CB.
Report: As there were no in-person meetings in 2020 due to COVID-19, no distributionof educational materials occurred. Materials are prepared and hopefully, distribution will
start again, as soon as appropriate, in 2021.
Grow ‘Social Media’ presence as Body developed a twitter handle that went live at
the Glasgow meeting (@Ccbifcc). Discussions on initiation about developing a code of
conduct for the C-CB to tweet statements on behalf of the committee; allowing open
access to post comments/tweets. Use of social media to combat some of the publishedmaterials which conflict with appropriate use of hs-cTn assays as well as produce videos
of individuals/ KOLs as an educational venue to post on our website page.
Report: This activity will be carried over to 2021 due to COVID-19 and unexpected
increased clinical commitments for C-CB members in their day-to-day work place.
53

•

C-Kidney Disease (C-KD); Chair: Flavio Alcantara (BR)report not received•

C-Point of Care Testing (C-POCT); Chair: Adil Khan (CA)
9. POCT Satellite Symposium at IFCC WorldLab in Seoul 2020
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the IFCC WorldLab in Seoul has been rescheduled toJune 26th-30th 2022.
10.
Continue working on Position Paper on Point-of-Care Testing outside the hospitalsettings.
This has gone through several revisions and is planned for completion in 2021.
11.
C ontinue working with C-CB on educational guideline on POC Troponin Assays.
The C-POCT has provided their feedback on this educational guideline.
12.
Prepare lecture for POCT for C-IDL eAcademy.
This has gone through several revisions and is planned for completion in 2021.
13.
Develop a guideline to help GPs on POCT Management.
The first draft was produced but is being revised with the intention of creating acustomisable guideline that can be used globally in different settings. Will also get
feedback from C-CLM.
14.
Develop a guideline to help regulate/limit the POC tests requested in laboratories.
Guideline was developed and given to Dr. Marielle Kaplan (Israel). She has proposed it
to her national society.
15.
Develop guideline to help standardise POC testing in Egypt.
Guideline was developed with the help of Prof. Rania Sharkaway (Egypt), Prof T Matsha(South Africa) Prof Annallise Zemlin (South Africa), Prof Rajiv Erasmus (South Africa).
Prof. Sharkaway will propose this to her national society.
8. Dr. Adil I. Khan chaired a webinar on 21st May 2020, on ‘Role of blood gas in overallmanagement of COVID-19 patients’ (organised by Roche and supported by the IFCC
Congresses and Conferences Committee). C-POCT members have also been active inwriting articles and have been invited to be guest editors for journals related to POCT.
Practical Laboratory Medicine (Guest Editor, Dr. Julie Shaw) and Archives of Pathology
and Laboratory Medicine (Guest Editor, Dr. Adil I. Khan).
9. PUBLICATIONS:
Catering for the point-of-care testing explosion. Adil I. Khan, Mazeeya Khan, Rosy
Tirimacco. (Submitted to JIFCC).

• C-Proficiency Testing (C-PT); Chair: Armand Perret-Liaudet (FR)This first year of chairing the C-PT was difficult for me. The pandemic has affected the smoothfunctioning of the committee by altering communication possibilities, by altering the possibilities
of dissemination (delay of the main meetings), by altering my own ability to devote more time tothe project (priority to the proper functioning, management and reorientation of the biologicalactivities of our laboratory). In addition, there was a long misunderstanding with the company
Insoft (see discussion below). However, the group was able to function.
1. The main project of the committee is the implementation of an online database – webapplication (PTDB) accessible via web browsers and also via specific applications, forthe major mobile platforms. The database is designed to be accessible by different
entries. Main functional part of this database, is the PT providers section containing
all their contact information, their programmes with the analytes, frequencies, type ofstatistics, commutability of control materials, their accreditation or certification status,
etc. The roll out of the Providers part of the database was achieved in the middle ofFebruary 2017 and the PTDB, including 69 providers from all around the world. This partis maintained with the cooperation of the IFCC EMD C-AQ and EQALM. The PTDB canbe consulted directly at http://ptdb.ifcc.org/providers.
54

2. In response to email sent in 2019 via the IFCC office (Silvia Cardinale) to the EQA-PT
providers and the National Representatives, one Indian EQA-PT provider updated theirrecords for the PTDB.
3. Other entries of this database are both analytes and methods that have to be filed withall possible synonyms.
In 2018, we have chosen CSF neopterin as an example of an analyte to implement (lackof EEQ programme) in the PTDB. After finalising the document (IFCC General Conferencein Budapest, November 2018), design and production of suitable control materials thatcan be used for the development of EQA-PT schemes for neopterin in CSF was done.
First stability studies conducted over August to September 2019 were successful andthe feasibility of the project was confirmed in 2020 by checking the stability of neopterinin the control material up to one year at different temperatures.
4. Introduction of features in our project that can help IVD manufacturers during theimplementation was done, leading to a modification of features requests at the end of
2019.
These requests were sent to InSoft for development and implementation (A Haliassos). InSoft
requested and received clarification and precise instructions on this subject. However, InSoft
did not progress further with the project, finally mentioning problems of understanding. Afterthe last discussion between InSoft and APL, it was decided to build the proof of concept byadapting the biological words in a more understandable language for computer scientists.
5. The members of C-PT checked the definition of “uncommon measurand”.
6. The members of C-PT revised the request document of IVD manufacturer: they need tocheck and finalise this document taking account of remarks by InSoft.
7. EQA Providers Websites. The main problem is the heterogeneity of information
accessibility between different websites. This is a major challenge for the new TF, inorder to facilitate the search for information on these websites.
•

C-Value Proposition for Laboratory Medicine (C-VPLM); Chair: Andrew St. John (AU)
1. PAPERS, the planned papers and their progress are as follows:
i. A review of the use of economic modelling for laboratory tests – Lead: Paul Julicher.
This has been completed and accepted for publication by the Annals of Clinical
Biochemistry subject to minor corrections.
ii. The value proposition for the use of CRP by point-of-care testing in patients withacute cough – Lead: Andrew St John.
A version of the paper was completed but was rejected by two journals; work willcontinue on an amended version.
iii. The value proposition for the use of BNP/NT-pro BNP in the diagnosis of heart
failure in primary care – Leads: Chris Price/Maurice O’Kane.
There was insufficient time to work on this paper.
iv. The value proposition for the use of donor-derived cell-free DNA in transplantmonitoring – Lead: Michael Oellerich.
Paper has been published as part of the special issue of the Journal of Applied
Laboratory Medicine (see below).
v. Contributory papers to a special issue on Value in Laboratory Medicine for the
Journal of Applied Laboratory Medicine – Coordinator: Rob Christenson.
Committee members contributed 5 papers to this special issue and are listed below
under publications.
A number of other papers were published in the area of value and included theacknowledgement that they were part of the work of the IFCC-WASPaLM Committee for
the Value Proposition in Laboratory Medicine. They are listed below under publications.
2. WORKSHOPS
None of the planned workshops could take place due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
55

3. SYMPOSIA AND ORAL PRESENTATIONS
Planned presentations by Andrew St John at AACC, ACB Focus and Maurice O’Kane at
the ACB-EFLM Workshop on Test Evaluation, did not take place.
Virtual presentations by Michael Oellerich on the Value Proposition took place at the
Biotech Atelier (Sofia 25.09.2020) and at the AACC annual meeting (14.12.2020).
4. Two members of the Committee, Andrew St John and Paul Jülicher, together with Khosrow
Adeli, contributed to an IFCC Webinar entitled ““Value and Impact of Laboratory Medicine
in Patient Care: Developing the Evidence” which was broadcast on 25th November 2020.
Several thousand IFCC members registered and there was positive feedback and anumber of questions.
5. The Committee will continue for a 2nd term of office commencing on Jan 1, 2021.
6. PUBLICATIONS
i. Price CP, McKinley P, St John A. What is the return on investment for laboratory
medicine? The antidote to silo budgeting in diagnostics. British Journal of Healthcare
Management. 2020. https://doi.org/10.12968/bjhc.2019.0075
ii. St John A. Determining value – Do laboratory professionals need to learn more aboutthe ‘dismal science’? Annals of Clinical Biochemistry. 2020; 57: 337–338.
iii. Price CP, St John A. Will COVID-19 be the coming of age for point-of-care testing?
BMJ Innov. 2020;0:1–3. doi:10.1136/bmjinnov-2020-000466
iv.St John A. The Pursuit of Value in Laboratory Medicine – Progress and Challenges.
Clin Biochem Rev 2020; 41: 3-11.
v. Christenson RH, Grenache DH, Oellerich M. Special Collection on the Value ofLaboratory Medicine. The Journal of Applied Laboratory Medicine, September
2020, https://doi.org/10.1093/jalm/jfaa120
vi. Price CP, McGinley P, St John A. Where Is the Value of Laboratory Medicine andHow Do You Unlock It? The Journal of Applied Laboratory Medicine, September
2020, https://doi.org/10.1093/jalm/jfaa116
vii. Price CP, St John A. The Role of Laboratory Medicine in Value-Based Healthcare. The
Journal of Applied Laboratory Medicine, September 2020, https://doi.org/10.1093/
jalm/jfaa136
viii. Giusepi I, St John A, Jülicher P Who Conducts Health Economic Evaluations ofLaboratory Tests? A Scoping Review. The Journal of Applied Laboratory Medicine,
September 2020, https://doi.org/10.1093/jalm/jfaa107
ix. Oellerich M, Christenson RH, Beck J, Schütz E, Sherwood K, Price CP, Keown PA,
Walson PD. Donor-Derived Cell-Free DNA Testing in Solid Organ Transplantation: A
Value Proposition. The Journal of Applied Laboratory Medicine, May 2020, https://doi.org/10.1093/jalm/jfaa062
x. Jülicher P, O’Kane M, Price CP, Christenson R, St John A. Health economic
evaluations of medical tests: translating laboratory information into value- a casestudy example. Accepted for publication in Annals of Clinical Biochemistry subject
to minor corrections.

56•

WG-Laboratory Errors and Patient Safety (WG-LEPS); Chair: Mauro Plebani (IT)report not received•

WG-Harmonisation of Interpretive Comments EQA (WG-ICQA), Chair: Magdalena
Turzyniecka (ZA)
report not received•

WG-Personal Support (WG-PS); Chair: Graham Beastall
1. Continue to operate the Register of Experts (RoE) matching experts to inquirers andadding new experts as appropriate. Completed

2. Continue to operate the Mentoring Programme matching mentors with affiliates andadding new mentors as appropriate. Completed
3. Audit the effectiveness of the Mentoring Programme. Not Completed
4. Promote the opportunities afforded by WG-PS. The campaign will be launched through
IFCC Members, TF-YS and ‘Lab-Surfing’ and via social networking. The aim is to identify
individuals who would benefit from being connected to an Expert or Mentor. Partly
completed
5. The Covid-19 pandemic affected the professional lives of all laboratory medicine
specialists during 2020. Their focus was understandably localised and short-term. As aresult, the requests made to WG-PS were very few in number.
6. MEETING/CONFERENCE CALLS HELD
None, but effective interaction with the IFCC Office. Thanks to Silvia Cardinale for her
excellent support
7. PUBLICATIONS: No peer-reviewed publications but informal articles appeared in a
number of newsletters.
• Visiting Lecturer Programme (IFCC-VLP); Chair: Nader Rifai (US)In 2020, 9 VLPs and 16 Visiting Lecturers were approved but because of COVID-19
pandemic only 4 of the approved VLPs took place. The VLP applications approved in 2020are shown in the appended table.

IFCC Visiting Lecturer Programme Applications approved for 2020
PeriodFebruary

19-20
February

Location

EGYPT(Alexandria)

MALAWI(Lilongwe)

Date ofapproval

23.12.201906.11.2019

Applicant

Rania
ElSharkawy

Elias
ChipofyaSpeaker/s

Lectures/workshops

Rajiv
Erasmus(ZA)

1) Vitamin D Supplementation: what is theevidence2) Leadership and Excellence

AnnaliseZemlin (ZA)

1) Hyperglycaemia: past ,present and future2) Clinical maudits and improvement in quality

Seema
Bhargava(IN)1) Achieved Six Sigma: What next2) Quality Comntrol Dilemmas

Rajiv
Erasmus(ZA)1) Quality Workshop
2) Chronic kidney disease - a growing problem
for Africa

1) Quality Workshop
Tony2) Experiences gained from international
Badrick (AU)projects to introduce EQA

notes

sost.
Renze
Bais

1) Quality workshop
Annette2) The role of the laboratory in diagnosing andThomas (UK)monitoring diabetes

5-7
March

PAKISTAN(Karachi)

13-15
March

MEXICOCONAQUIC(Chiapas)19.02.2020

Alejandra
Cano Huizar

23-25
April

ARGENTINA(San Luis)

28.01.2020

Maria
Alejandra
Arias

27.11.2019

Aysha
Hasbib Khan

DianneWebster(NZ)1) Plenary Lecture: Essencial of establishing a
Newborn Screening Program
2) Workshop: Essencial of establishing a
Newborn Screening Program

Amy R.U.L.
Calhoun(US)

1) Plenary Lecture: Implementation of Newborn
Screening program: addressing mistakes andway forward
2) Workshop: Development of a rfare diseseregistryMontserrat
BlanesGonzales(PY)1) Generating value through diagnostic tests(1,5 hours conference)2) Update in endocrinology quality system (8hours workshop)

Spanishlanguage

Ramon
Deulofeu(ES)1) El laboratorio en la valoracion del estado
nutricional de los pacientes
2) Vitaminas pasado, presente y futuro

Cancelled57

27 May

14-17
Oct

23-24
Oct

15
August

KOREA(Seoul)URUGUAY(Montevideo)

SLOVENIA(Portoroz)

SINGAPORE

10.12.201909.01.2020

07.02.2020

26.08.2019

Nader Rifai(US)1) Principles of scientific writing
2) Publication ethics

Alan Wu(US)1) Promote Lab Medicine. The time to act isnow2) Implementation of high sensitivity cardiac
troponim for acute coronary syndromes
3) High resolution mass spectrometry for drugsof abuse testing

DamienGruson (BE)1) Interference in immunological assays
2) The impact of dogital transformation andartificial intelligence on laboratory services
3) Tyroid and infertility

Wytze
Osterhuis(NL)1) Assing clinical utility to the laboratory reports
2) Reflective testing: adding value to laboratory
testing3) Measurement uncertainty, total error andanalytical performance specifications

Evgenija
HomsakSantiago
Fares Taie
(AR)1) IFCC TF-YS -Networking with Millenials,
preparing for the future2) TSH Reference Values in elderly population

Sharon Saw

1) New Technologies in Clinical Laboratory
Diagnostics
S. Bernardini
2) The role of GTSs in the context of(IT)neurodegenerative diseses and urologic
oncology

Jeong-HoKim

StellaRaymondo

Cancelled

Cancelled

Cancelled

Cancelled• WG-Working Group on Flow Cytometry (WG-FC); Chair: Claude Lambert (FR)Because of the pandemic, most of the working group’s activities had to be cancelled.
1. Winter school of Cytometry: Applications in Immunology was successfully organised
and held in Geneva university from 9-13 March 2020.
There were 12 students from several countries, including Poland, Montenegro, Brazil,
France and Switzerland.
Speakers were from Switzerland, France, Luxemburg, Germany, Morocco and Algeria,
from different fields like research in immunology, medicine or veterinary sciences.
Precautions were organised in view of the infectious risk. The course was completed
just before the lockdown in Europe.
2 Munich Workshop March 2020
cancelled
3. Egypt Workshop
cancelled
4. A Latin America School in Brazil cancelled
5. Munich Workshop September
cancelled
6. Chile or Argentina Workshop
cancelled
7. Turkey
cancelled
8. Sudancancelled
Activities 2 to 8 could not be organised because of the pandemic.
•

Developing Quality Competence in Medical Laboratories (DQCML); Chair: Egon Amann (DE)
1. DQCML Workshop in Lahore, Pakistan, held on January 10 - 11, 2020.
2. DQCML Workshop planned in detail to take place in Ramallah, Palestine on August 20thand 21st, 2020, could not take place due to several reasons; the main one being theCovid-19 pandemic (see attachment to this report).
3. A presentation on DQCML’s activities and a “Drop in” session addressing developing
countries in order to consider their application for workshops and advice and otherhelp at the IFCC WorldLab 2020 Congress in Seoul was cancelled due to the Covid-19
pandemic.
4. PUBLICATIONS: IFCC eNews No. 3 – March 2020, p. 5-8.
Leslie Lai, EMD Chair

58

COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLICATIONS DIVISION (CPD)
The following members served on the CPD Executive Committee in 2020: Tahir Pillay (ZA,
Chair), Rajiv Erasmus (ZA, Public Relations Coordinator), Eduardo Freggiaro (AR, Publications/Distance Learning Coordinator), Katherina Psarra (GR, News Editor), J. Kappelmayer (HU, Vice
Chair, Editor eJIFCC), and Tricia Ravalico (US, Corporate Representative).
The IFCC website contributed greatly to supporting the laboratory in the pandemic with the
IFCC Information Guide on COVID-19, the web-publication that has grown with weekly (andnow bimonthly) updates, and with the COVID-19 resource page.
The following is a summary list of the key CPD activities in 2020:• The planned face-to-face meetings in Seoul and Chicago could not take place owing
to the pandemic and the postponement of Worldlab Seoul 2020 and the AACC annual
meeting 2020. Instead, we held two Zoom meetings on 25 May 2020 and 28 July 2020.
• CPD Chair, Prof. Tahir Pillay (ZA), continues his first term.
• CPD Secretary, Dr Eduardo Freggiaro, ended his first term and will begin his second
term in 2020.
• C-PR Chair, Prof Rajiv Erasmus (CA) continues his first term and is also CPD Vice chair.
• eNews Editor, Dr Katherina Psarra (GR,) continues her first term.
• WG eJIFCC Chair, and eJIFCC editor, Prof János Kappelmayer (HU), was appointed
CPD Vice Chair.
• WG-IANT Chair dr Raul Girardi (AR) was appointed after Maria del Carme Pasquel ended
her second term.
• Calls for nominations were opened for CPD functional unit member position vacancies.
• There was a renewal of the agreement with Elsevier• We explored the possibility of using a manuscript submission system such as Scholarone, Editorial Manager or any other open-source platform to be adopted as soon as theeJIFCC increases the number of issues/year.
• News items on the website: more than 60 news items were published on the website.
• Press releases: 4 press releases were drafted and distributed via the AACC press room,with nearly 1500 accesses in total.
CPD Symposia at 2020-2022 meetings:
The planned CPD symposium at WorldLab Seoul 2020 was as follows (held over until 2022):
A New Era in Medical Laboratory Diagnostics Management: Application of Advanced
Mobile & Web Technology
Chair: Dr. Tahir Pillay, South Africa• Role of technology in patient management and precision medicine
Tahir Pillay – South Africa• Mobile technology and management of point of care instruments.
Ronda Greaves – Australia• Using mobile technology to manage big data collection.
Khosrow Adeli – Canada• New developments in web technology to enable medical diagnostics lab management.
Eduardo Luis Freggiaro – Argentina
CPD symposium proposal: COLABIOCLI León, Mexico 18 -22 April 2022
The “new normal” of communication in data and education in laboratory medicine in the
post-Covid era
Chair: Dr. Tahir Pillay, South Africa• The 4th Industrial Revolution post-Covid-19: how has blended communication resources
for patients and laboratory professionals changed”
Tahir Pillay – South Africa
59

•

•
•

Educational resources for the clinical laboratory in the IFCC Latin American corner postCovid
Maria Del Carmen Pasquel Carrera - Ecuador
Education and distance learning strategies in the IFCC during and after the pandemic
Eduardo Freggiaro - Argentina
Impact of Covid-19 on communication and public relations for laboratorians
Rajiv Erasmus – South Africa

 Committees• Committee on Public Relations (C-PR); Chair: Rajiv Erasmus (ZA)The Committee emphasizes the importance of continuous education and proposes to translate
the eAcademy webinars into several languages. C-PR has proposed several communication
strategies including a WeChat and WhatsApp accounts and these were discussed in the 2020
CPD meetings. The display posters will be updated for the future events.
The C-PR is developing new brochures, so to reflect the new IFCC pay-off and a new,shortened IFCC slide deck that could be useful for IFCC speakers to introduce IFCC during
their presentations.
A call for nominations has been issued to complete membership. The appointment wascompleted in late 2020.
• Committee on Internet and e-Learning (C-IeL); Chair: Eduardo Freggiaro (AR)The previously merged C-IDL committee was split into CPD C-IeL and EMD C-DL with Eduardo
Freggiaro chair of the CPD Committee on Internet and eLearning.
After the Jaipur meeting (November 2019), CPD appointed three new members in order tocomplete the committee’s membership: Deniz Topcu from Turkey, Rojeet Shrestha from Nepal
and Sibtain Ahmed from Pakistan. They effectively joined the group on January 2020. After ashort two month period, the pandemic situation interrupted many of the planned activities andmost of the committee objectives were put on hold in order to attend urgent tasks and projects
related to COVID-19. A face-to-face meeting scheduled in May 2020 was not possible owing
to the cancellation of IFCC Worldlab congress. The committee continued to communicate via
WhatsApp. Insoft suggested this option as the best and official way of communication. It waswell received by members but it is not frequently used. As usual emails are the first option tosolve issues. Recently the PMS storage quota was reached so Insoft support will be needed.
Janine Grant continued serving as Website Editor even when her term in office was finished. Her
commitment was remarkable so we expressed our gratitude for her impressive work. Janine
was invited to continue as committee consultant and she kindly accepted this role.
The current C-IeL Membership is as follows:
Name
Position
Eduardo Freggiaro
Chair
Lorena M. Brennan Bourdon
MemberRojeet Shrestha
MemberDeniz Topcu
MemberSibtain Ahmed
MemberJanine Grant
Consultant

Country
AR
MX
NP
TK
PK
AU

Term
1
1st
1st
1st
1st
st

Time in Office2018 01 - 2020 122019 05 - 2021 122020 01 - 2022 122020 01 - 2022 122020 01 - 2022 12

The committee now has 5 members. Deniz Topcu is the current Website Editor. The
handover on this demanding position was really excellent. He understood the job quickly
thanks to the tuition offered by Janine Grant and Silvia Colli-Lanzi. Rojeet Shrestha
continued serving as Social Media Coordinator.

60

•

KNOVIO Platform for eAcademy’s content production:
KNOVIO platform is working very well and Speakers find the tool easy-to-use.
However, occasional small Internet breaks caused issues during the recordings.
Since the eAcademy content is slides with voiceover, the narration tool in PowerPoint
is still a good alternative for content production.
• New content on eAcademy:
During 2020, 8 new modules have been published. The list of topics are as follows:o Implementing value-based laboratory testing - Aye Aye Khineo Relevance of Clinical Audits and EBLM to improve Quality - Annalise Zemlino Urea Cycle Defects - Lena Jafri
o POCT Advantages and Disadvantages - Annalise Zemlino Conflict resolution - Aye Aye Khineo Introduction to Patient Based Real Time QC - Tony Badricko Ethics & Professionalism for IFCC Volunteers (Part 1) - Joesph Wienceko Ethics & Professionalism for IFCC Volunteers (Part 2) - Joesph Wiencek
These last two modules on Ethics were produced in cooperation with the Task
Force on Ethics (TF-E) by a direct request of the IFCC Executive Board.
Current numbers of available educational materials on eAcademy: 129
o Modules 88
o External links 41• New strategy to seek eAcademy modules:
C-DL scanned the next lectures of VLP’s Speakers in order to identify topics and create
modules for eAcademy. Many VLP Speakers has been invited to collaborate (22) andsome have already accepted the invitation (13). However, since all the congresses
were cancelled a reminder for recording the modules will be sent.
Thanks to this strategy Dr. Mario Plebani is currently recording 2 modules:o Quality and Safety in Lab Medicineo Uncertainty in Lab Medicine
Dr. Plebani recorded these videos a few month ago but, unfortunately he experienced
some technical issues and the lectures were lost. These modules will be recorded
again and will be ready for publication soon.
This is the list of Speakers and its lectures invited to produce eAcademy modules:
Khosrow Adeli
Lipid guidelines: emerging evidence on importance of non-fastingand postprandial lipids
Bernard Gouget
Building bioethics into the future of lab medicine
Christa Cobbaert
Apolipoprotein profiling for addressing residual cardiovascularrisk
Ellis Jacobs
Patient Safety: A Quality System Approach to POCT QC / QA
Sedef Yenice
Developing a Roadmap for Laboratory Utilization management
program
Sampath ParthasarthyAproprotein E, Alzheimer, Atherosclerosis, Inflammation, Oxidative
stressEd Randel
Promotion of Appropriate Laboratory Test Utilization: Fromfinancial accountability to Appropriateness and Quality of Care
Tom Annesley
Principles of scientific writing
Nader Rifai
Publication ethics
Annalise Edith Zemlin Hyperglycaemia: Past, present and future
Seema Bhargava
Achieved Six Sigma: What nextRajiv Timothy Erasmus
Vitamin D Supplementation: What is the evidence
Annette Thomas
The role of the laboratory in diagnosing and monitoring diabetes
Alan Wu
Implementation of high sensitivity cardiac troponin for acutecoronary syndromes
61

Alan Wu
Wytze Oosterhuis
Damien Gruson
Damien Gruson

High resolution mass spectrometry for drugs of abuse testing
Measurement uncertainty, total error and analytical performance
specifications
Interference in immunological assays
Thyroid and infertility

This strategy could be implemented with authors when their papers are
accepted for publication in the eJIFCC.
A procedure that covers the steps from invitation to final publication has been
agreed by all the partners involved in eAcademy development: C-IeL, C-DL, IFCC
Office and Insoft.
In order to track every step of this procedure, in real time, an online spreadsheet was
created.
•

IFCC/AACC agreement on “Pearls in Lab Medicine”:
Thanks to this agreement, the AACC provided 24 “Pearls in lab medicine” to berecorded with Spanish narration. The Pearls are short video presentations (10-15 min.)about a very specific lab medicine topic. AACC shared the English transcriptions andslides of the Pearls. IFCC will translate these transcripts into Spanish and then willrecord a Spanish narrated version of the Pearl.
This is a two-year plan (12 pearls per year) with a budget of USD 12.000 provided by
The Boston Children’s Hospital.
The translation of the first set is in progress and videos will be recorded
soon. The first two “Cápsula” (Pearl in Spanish) were completed andpublished:o COVID-19 by Prof. Dr. Giuseppe Lippio Spanish version of AACC Tamizaje Neonatal Pearl of Laboratory Medicine
These pearls will be offered in the eAcademy frame according to the terms signedin the MOU. We are working to find the best place to deliver these videos since they
do not fit the eAcademy template or format.
• eAcademy miscellaneous contents:
Like the AACC pearls, we have identified many valuable educational materials thatcertainly do not fit the eAcademy format requirements. Therefore, we are designing a
new place inside eAcademy to offer these useful educational contents.
• eAcademy Coordinators:
Paul Hamilton and Rojeet Shrestha (RS) were working as coordinators. They helped
to produce some contents. Since the numbers of members from C-DL and C-IeL
rose from 4 to 10, this approach could be dismissed.
RS is trying to get learning objectives, MCQs and CV for the 18 videos from the 2017
ICPLM meeting in Durban. Once they are completed and approved by C-DL we will
publish them on eAcademy.
• Spanish subtitles in eAcademy:
The new Chair of WG-IANT, Dr Raúl Girardi, expressed his commitment to continue
with the collaborative translation project hosted in the platform “Amara”. Up to now, 10
modules are now offered in eAcademy with closed captions in Spanish.
• Umbraco’s eAcademy update:
The CMS of the website was updated last year. However, the update of the
Umbraco version that manage the eAcademy website is still pending. After thisversion update, website and eAcademy administrations will be unified.
• Social Media Activities:
The number of followers in Facebook page is 28,446. It means that IFCC ranks
number 1 in professional societies of clinical chemistry.
62

IFCC Twitter currently contains 2,318 followers and 904
tweets. LinkedIn account has 2013 followers.
Instagram account has 556 followers and 409 posts.
• Website activities:
The handover between editors was successfullycompleted. Interactive membership map was updatedo Iraqi Society for Molecular Biology and Genetics (ISMBG) and Myanmar Medical
Technologist Association (MMTA) were addedo Status Mongolia in the map was corrected
A broken link of related webinars https://www.ifcc.org/ifcc-education-division/webinars/
was updated as well as Corporate Members’ logos banner. Tosoh Corporation logo wasadded.
A new picture button was created and added to the IFCC media section to link COVID
information. A weekly update of IFCC Information Guide on COVID-19 is publishedregularly.
An average of 2-3 publication per week are reviewed and published.
• Social Media Policy:
C-IeL wrote the final version of this policy and it will be submitted to CPD for approval.
FUTURE PLANS:• Produce new modules for eAcademy in liaison with C-DL.
• Update Umbraco version of eAcademy.
• To ask Insoft for a mock-up of the website layout in order to do a major update ofwebsite’s design.
• Improve the search engine and the file tracking system of the website.
• To start a round of discussions (involving functional units) to find new ideas andfeatures for a big update of IFCC App (i.e. interactive clinical cases or clinical scenarios
as proposed by C-CLM).
• Deployment of eAcademy Phase 2 with the launch of some completed modules.
• Development of eAcademy Phase 3.
• Explore the feasibility of an IFCC Virtual Congress and prepare a proposal.
• To liaise with the Committee on Mobile Health and Bioengineering in Laboratory
Medicine (C-MHBLM) to explore possible joint ventures (i.e. Big Data on lab medicine,
Mobile Apps).
 Working Groups•

Working Group on Electronic Journal of the IFCC (WG eJIFCC); Chair: János
Kappelmeyer (HU)

In the past year, the eJIFCC has been engaged with trying to obtain an Impact factor. There havesome challenges in the communication with Clarivate. The submission was re-initiated in May
2020. The journal has also been dealing with plagiarism and has now taken up a subscription
with Ithenticate.
Statistics of submissions to eJIFCC (May 2020)
Submitted:
30
Rejected:
17
63

No response after major revision:
Accepted after minor revision:
Accepted after major revision:
Accepted as a letter to the Editor:
Accepted as submitted:
Under review:

2
5
2
3
2
3

Submitting countries and number of free submissions in 2019-2020• Ethiopia
21• Marocco
10• India8• Nepal3• Spain4• Pakistan
4• Argentina 2• Malta2• Nigeria
2• One submission from: Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Italy, Kenya,
Philadelphia, Portugal, Syria, Togo
Volumes in 2020
Issue 1 - Thematic Issue Gabriel Oliveira Lima
Issue 2 - Free communications -June 2020
Issue 3 - Free communications – September 2020
Issue 4 - Thematic issue. Ed: Nilda Fink; Ethics in Laboratory medicine- December 2020•

Working Group on IFCC NEWS (WG-eNEWS); Chair: Katherina Psarra (GR)The working group has 25 representatives with 9 national society liaisons. The current membersof the eNewsletter working group are also involved into other IFCC activities. A request to
confirm the interest to stay in the WG has been sent to all members.
In 2020 the rate of publication continued with monthly frequency. The eNews has now following
section:• Editorial• The Voice of IFCC,• IFCC: the People,• IFCC: the Young Scientists,• Contribute to IFCC eNews,• News from Regional Federations and Member Societies,• IFCC Calendar• News from the Web
The eNewsflash was revamped since August and 3 editions highlighting important IFCC news
items especially time‐sensitive and urgent items were published.
Requests for articles are sent to all eNewsletter WG members, National Societies liaisonsand National Representatives (through the IFCC Office) with a reminder of the deadlines. The
64

reports of the IFCC Young Scientists task force and the PSEP reports from awardees tend tofeature prominently. This helps to highlight the contribution of the IFCC to international clinicalchemistry across the world and also ensures that contributions from members continue tocome to the newsletter. The eNews continue to coordinate with Social Media editor to post
most popular articles on IFCC Social accounts.
The eNews collection is available at: http://www.ifcc.org/ifcc-communications-publicationsdivision-cpd/ifcc-publications/enewsletter/enews-volumes/
The eNews Flash collection is available at: http://www.ifcc.org/ifcc-communicationspublications-division-cpd/ifcc-publications/enewsletter/enews-flash-archive/
Collaboration with EFLM news and LMI has continued as before.
Relationship with LabMedica International
LMI prints a selection of the articles. The eNews editor is on the editorial board of LabMedica.
•

Working Group -Spanish (Ibero-American) Nomenclature and Translations; Chair:
Raúl Girardi (AR)Dr Girardi from Argentina, took over as the new chair from January 2020. The update of RIA andDIV web pages continues with the cooperation of the office and of the web editor
Membership: new members are participating into the WG activities representing all Ibero
American IFCC countries. The RIA section of IFCC website is continuously updated.
Social networks are working very well and allowed a significant increase visits in IFCC / RIA /DIV.

3 DIV issues were published in February, June and October 2020 both in PDF version and flip
version,• DiV sections are:• Editorial, based on the content of the journal, or on a specific event.
• News and Updates, on the scientific or professional activities of the scientific societiesof the region.
• Scientific Articles and News Research articles,• Letters to the Editor,• Young Scientists corner,• Radio Interview “El Microscopio”.
The access to DiV is direct from IFCC and DIV website
The WG-IANT is constantly inviting readers to visit the magazine through emails and social
networks.
El Microscopio

In 2020 The Iberoamerican web Radio El MICROSCOPIO continued its support to thedissemination of IFCC journals and broadcasted interviews for the magazine DIV, sometranslated from English to Spanish.
New programs and initiatives are planned, mainly focused on updating the RIA section of the65website.
Programmes are regularly broadcasted and some of them are in English, for a broader circulation.
This successful initiative is in search of additional funding and tools for promotional purposes.
Corporate Member Activities - Tricia Ravalico
Tricia Ravalico (Abbott) has provided great support for IFCC public relations. Her 2020 activities
included supporting the C-PR for the IFCC brochures revision, supporting the IFCC, along withother partners, for the launch of the UNIVANTS of HCE (Healthcare Excellence Programme). For
this latter programme the activities were many and were vehiculated through the different IFCC
communications channels.
Web Editor activities
The IFCC website contributed greatly to supporting the laboratory in the pandemic with the
IFCC Information Guide on COVID-19, the web-publication that has grown with weekly (andnow bimonthly) updates, and with the COVID-19 resource page.
• Continued Activities:• News section updateo 2-3 per week review and publish news
• A weekly update of IFCC Information Guide on COVID-19• Update of interactive membership• Tracking of web site analytics• Planned Activities:• Website design update
Tahir Pillay, CPD Chair

66

EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES DIVISION (ETD)The ETD is an IFCC functional unit responsible for identifying and assessing emerging
technologies and for translating the emerging and disruptive diagnostic and data analysis
procedures from academic laboratories to clinical laboratories and from clinical laboratories
to market.
The ETD Responsibilities are: defining for each ET the clinical needs and criteria of educationof specialists in Laboratory Medicine and caregivers; defining for ET the appropriate
infrastructure and laboratory organization; defining for each ET pre-analytical, analytical andpost-analytical processes necessary for clinical laboratory applications; defining for each ET
quality programs and certifications required to meet criteria for accreditation up to ISO15189
standard; assess the clinical value of each test with regard to addressing unmet clinical need.
Membership
To date ETD in total is composed by 72 members from 27 Countries.
During 2020 the following members served on the ETD Executive Committee: Sergio Bernardini(Chair), Paolo Fortina (US) (Vice-Chair), Ronda Graves (AU) (Secretary), Damien Gruson (BE),(member); Markus Roessler (DE) and Peng Yin (CHN) (Corporate members). Four consultants:
Maurizio Ferrari (IT), Larry Kricka (US), Jason Park (US) and Helen Martin (AU).
Functional Units Meetings
Two electronic meetings of Executive Committee were held during 2020: June 19th andDecember 4th
Each Functional Unit of ETD met 3-5 times electronically during 2020.
Relationship with other IFCC Divisions
The ETD shares projects proposals and information with the Scientific Division (Chair: Philippe
Gillery). The purpose is to share information on activities and look for areas of mutual interest
avoiding overlaps and by working in synergy.
The ETD collaborates with the Communication and Publication Division (Chair: Tahir Pillay) toorganise surveys, to promote its activities and to deliver webinars.
Relationship with International Organizations• European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
The EFLM Science Committee and SD leadership agreed there should be close liaisonand communication between the two groups. The purpose is to share information on
activities and look for areas of mutual interest. Professor Eric Kilpatrick is the EFLM
SC chair.
• Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS)
Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, Inc. (HIMSS) is a global
advisor and thought leader supporting the transformation of the health ecosystemthrough information and technology. As a mission-driven non-profit, HIMSS offers aunique depth and breadth of expertise in health innovation, public policy, workforce
development, research and analytics to advise global leaders, stakeholders andinfluencers on best practices in health information and technology. Damien Grusonis the liaison with HIMSS. The target is to organise a Joint Conference during 2021.
• European Society for Pediatric Endocrinology (ESPE)
This collaboration is concerning activities related to laboratory diagnosis andmonitoring for disorders of sex development. This is a joint project with clinical andtranslational research experts. ETD liaison is Ronda Graves.
• Society for the Study of Inborn Errors of Metabolism (SSIEM) and International Society
for Neonatal Screening (ISNC)
67

The C-ETPLM is collaborating with SSIEM and ISNC to conduct a survey on COVID
impact on Paediatric Laboratory Medicine. ETD liaison is Tim Lang.
Congresses and Conferences 2020
1. Journées Francophones de Biologie Médicale, November 24th : Pandémie SRAS
COV2: Bigbang de l’accélération numérique .
2. Journées de Biologie Clinique, December 10th: Navigate lab medicine’s andhealthcare’s digital transformation.
3. Journées de Biologie Clinique, December 11th: E-cardiology and Laboratory Medicine
4. AACC 2020, December 15th: Successful strategies for the clinical implementation ofnext generation sequencing in oncology in a hospital.
5. AACC 2020, December 16th: Tumor Mutation Burden (TMB): A Potential Novel
Biomarker for Therapeutic Selection
Congresses and Conferences organised during 2020 and expected in 2021
1. IFCC Global Conference on COVID-19, February 15th: “Emerging tools in fighting
Covid- 19”- symposium n. 2 and “Emerging Tools in Fighting COVID-19”- symposium
n.10.
2. 8th International Symposium on Critical Care Testing and Blood Gases, Biarritz June
10-11 2021
3. Conference POCT: Making the Point, Rome September 6-7, 2021
4. Journées Francophones de Biologie médicale (5e JFBM) Rennes (FR) Oct 6th:
Session: For a heavy dose of digital to deliver high performance in a new healthcare
landscape
5. EuroMedLab Munchen 2021: Dec 1st “Viewpoint 6 Regulating direct-to-consumer
testing 2.0: Protecting the consumer”
6. Journée de l’innovation en biologie (JIB) Dec 8-11, Paris (topics tbd)
7. ICPLM to be held in Munich prior to the EuroMedLab congress (26-28/11/2021)
Surveys Published on ETD website
1. First update to the volatolomics survey.
2. Breath analysis literature focused on COVID-19 testing.
3. Survey of Breath Analysis for Covid Diagnosis Analyzers.
Publications
1. Gruson D, Bernardini S, Dabla PK, Gouget B, Stankovic S. Collaborative AI andLaboratory Medicine integration in precision cardiovascular Medicine. Clinica
Chimica Acta, 2020; 509, 67-71.
2. Loh LP, Ho CS, Hartmann MF, Zakaria R, Lo CWS, van den Berg S, et al (2020).
Influence of isotopically labeled internal standards on quantification of serum/ plasma
17α-hydroxyprogesterone (17OHP) by liquid chromatography mass spectrometry.
CCLM; 2020 Sep 25;58(10):1731-1739
3. Nuccetelli M, Pieri M, Grelli S, Ciotti M, Miano R, Andreoni M, Bernardini S. SARSCoV-2 infection serology: a useful tool to overcome lockdown? Cell Death Discov.
2020 May 26;6(1):38
4. Nuccetelli M, Pieri M, Gisone F, Bernardini S. Combined anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgA,
IgG, and IgM Detection as a Better Strategy to Prevent Second Infection Spreading
Waves. Immunol Invest. 2020 Sep 18:1-13. doi: 10.1080/08820139.2020.1823407.
Epub ahead of print. PMID: 32945214; PMCID: PMC7544959.
5. Ciotti M, Ciccozzi M, Terrinoni A, Jiang WC, Wang CB, Bernardini S. The
COVID-19 pandemic. Crit Rev Clin Lab Sci. 2020 Sep;57(6):365-388. doi:
10.1080/10408363.2020.1783198. Epub 2020 Jul 9. PMID: 32645276.
68

6.

Kricka LJ, Polevikov S, Park JY, Fortina P, Bernardini S, Satchkov D, Kolesov V,
Grishkov M. Artificial Intelligence-Powered Search Tools and Resources in the Fight
Against COVID-19. EJIFCC. 2020 Jun 2;31(2):106-116.
7. Nuccetelli M, Pieri M, Grelli S, Ciotti M, Miano R, Andreoni M, Bernardini S. SARSCoV-2 infection serology: a useful tool to overcome lockdown? Cell Death Discov.
2020 May 26;6:38.
8. Nicolas C Nicolaides, Christina Kanaka-Gantenbein , Nektaria PapadopoulouMarketou, Amalia Sertedaki, George P Chrousos, Ioannis Papassotiriou. Emerging
Technologies in Pediatrics: The Paradigm of Neonatal Diabetes Mellitus. Crit Rev
Clin Lab Sci 2020 May 1;1-10.
9. Woollard G, McWhinney B, Greaves RF, Punyalack W. Total Pathway to Method
Validation.
10. CCLM; 2020 Oct 25;58(11):e257-e261. doi: 10.1515/cclm-2020-0525.
11. Gruson D, Bernardini S, Dabla P, Gouget B, Stankovic S. Integration of artificial
intelligence and laboratory medicine: opportunities for cardiovascular medicine.
eJIFCC, 2020 Jun 4;509:67-71.
eNews IFCC Publications
1. Chavagnac DC, Mabarek MA, Gouget B, Peoc’h K. Digitalisation and integration of
AI in Lab Medicine; Jan-Feb 47-49.
2. Gouget B. Uplifting the medical lab cybersecurity; March 33-34
3. Giannoli JM, Bouilloux JP, Gouget B. Labac: showing the way from compliance toexcellence; March 40-43.
4. Gouget B. A pandemic crisis and globalization: a long-term fight; April 9-11
5. Blancheotte F, Ferre V, Klouche M, Gouget B. JIB Paris: at the crossroads ofinnovation, ethics and professional performance; April 31-32.
6. Gouget B. Diagnostic, trust, solidarity and humanism; May 21-23.
7. Stankovic S, Bernardini S, Gouget B. CLAQ Serei Belgrade: Deep dive in AI,
innovation and quality management; May 29-32.
8. Gouget B. Igniting the AI and eHealth creative sparks at APFCB in Jaipur; June 1316.
9. Ethical digital technologies to flatten the curve; June 26-28.
10. Gouget B. Social distancing and the truth of masks; Jul/Aug 10-12.
11. Lensky M. Video promoting contribution of lab medicine professionals during
Covid-19; Jul/Aug 16-18.
12. Gouget B.A dose of AI in developing vaccines at pandemic speed. Sept 26-28.
13. Gouget B. Life with the virus: a new norm; Oct 18-20.
14. Blancheotte F, Ferre V, Gouget B. JIB 2020: innovation, cultural changes andredesigning lab medicine in Covid era; Oct 24-25
15. Gouget B. Lockdown 2.0 and curfew: the unspoken toll on the elderly; Nov 18-20.
Ongoing Projects
 Committees•

C-Mobile Health and Bioengineering in Laboratory Medicine (C-MHBLM); Chair: B.
Gouget (FR)Focused on:
1. Role of Mobile Health, Artificial Intelligence and Digital Laboratory Medicine in thefight against the COVID-19 pandemic
2. Benchmarking of mobile contact tracing and warning applications to reduce thespread of the SARS-CoV-2
69

3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Coronavirus: a common approach for safe and efficient mobile tracing and warning
apps
mHealth applications improve clinical outcomes of patients with chronic diseases;
remote patient monitoring systems
mHealth opportunities in emerging countries in the COVID era
AI in precision medicine, AI: LabMed and clinical applications
Ethics and AI•

Omics Translation (C-OT); Chair: Gregory J. Tsongalis (US)The C-OT webpage has been updated. The Chair of the Committee, Greg Tsongalis,
resigned and a call for membership has been sent to NSs. We thank Greg for the greatjob he did in making the Committee.

•

C-Emerging Technologies in Pediatric Laboratory Medicine (C-ETPLM); Chair: T. Lang(UK)The C-ETPLM webpage has been updated. Focused on:
1. Delivery of ICPLM
2. Delivery of online workshop on reference ranges

 Working Groups••

WG-Volatolomics (WG-Vol); Chair: L. Kricka (US)Focused on:
1. Second update to the volatolomics survey
2. IFCC eNews article to summarize work of the WG-Vol (2019-2021)
After these activities the WG will be closed.
WG-Guidance for the Implementation of Custom-made Genomic Panels (WG-GCP);
Chair: J. Morrissette (US)Focused on:
1. Design and development of the genomics webpage (part of the IFCC website).
Content is under development for short educational talks discussing genomics basics,
implementation and bioinformatic principles
2. Survey to IFCC affiliated laboratories• Initial survey: cusp of COVID• Redesigned survey under review with plans to send to IFCC affiliated laboratories inMarch 2021

New Working Groups starting from 2021
Two new WGs have been approved by the EB:“Single Cell and Spatial Transcriptomics” (WG-SCST; Chair Andrew South)“Artificial Intelligence and Genomic Diagnostics” (WG-AIGD; Chair Larry Kricka).
Sergio Bernardini, ETD Chair70

TASK FORCES
Task Force on Ethics (TF-E)
Achievements during 2020:• e-IFCC journal number entirely dedicated to Ethics in Laboratory Medicine waspublished. This special issue of the eJIFCC incorporates a series of manuscripts thatsummarizes part of relevant aspects on Ethics. Seven manuscripts were included, being fourof them an updating of clasical ethical topics, two referred to more recent challanges in Ethics
and an opinion paper.
• Ethics “toolkit” for Member Societies was updated and uploaded at the website.
• TF-Ethics website and section on “Highlights of recent events in Bioethics” was updated• Documents collected stratified by organization on COI, code of ethics & relationshipwith industry were incorporated (partially done).
• TF-Ethics held a committee zoom meeting with new authorities.
Plans for 2021:• To prepare and edit a 2021 webinar on relevant topics on Ethics during pandemic• To prepare an IFCC code of Ethics for Laboratory Medicine professionals• To update annually the Ethics “toolkit” for Member Societies.
• To Update TF-Ethics website and section on “Highlights of recent events in Bioethics”• To complete a table of documents collected so far stratified by organization. Committee
members will approach organizations in their region to solicit more documents (partiallydone) .
• To held TF-Ethics bimonthly zoom meetings• To prepare a document on Inequities, bioethics and Health care. As the pandemic shedlight on a lot of disparities related the healthcare, is proposed a document and a possible
article widely available to make sure that all IFCC members and related organizations
are aware of the challenges in this area.
Nilda Fink, TF-E Chair

Task Force for Young Scientists (TF-YS)
Due to COVID-19 pandemic, many activities have been postponed.
I. TF-YS educational sessions & networking 2020
1. POSTPONED 2022: TF-YS Functional meeting at IFCC WorldLab 2020, May 24-28,
Seoul, South Korea. Young Scientists volunteer program, travel grants by IFCC-TFYS.
All Core members to be supported by TFYS Budget 2020
2. POSTPONED 2022: YOUNG SCIENTISTS FORUM AT IFCC WORLDLAB SEOUL,
2020- Pre Congress Satellite meeting of approx 50-60 young scientists for 1-1.5 day withdeliberation of talks and topics close to the need and Networking of young scientists.
Further they will continue joining main congress. Selection criteria and budget estimation
will be determined and proposed to IFCC-EB with support of Treasurer and Liasion IFCC
TFYS, Prof Tomris. The event will be supported by IFCC & IVD as per action and future
outcomes.
3. POSTPONED: Young Scientist Session at CALILAB 2020, 23-26 Sep 2020, Argentina.
4. Young Scientist Session at Congresso Nazionale SIBioC YOUNG SCIENTISTS, Virtual,
October 6-8, 2020, Italy.
5. Young Scientist Session at XIII Congreso Uruguayo de Bioquímica Clínica. Uruguay
Virtual, October 15-17, 2020.
71

6. Young Scientist Session at VIII CONVERSATORIO COLABIOCLI. Colombia Virtual,
October 28th, 2020.
7. Young Scientist Session at Russian Congress of Laboratory Medicine. Forum “IFCC TFYS: Young Scientists Around the World”. Russia Virtual, November 18-19, 2020
8. Young Scientist Session at Conversatorio Colegio de Microbiologos y Químicos Clínicosde Costa Rica. Costa Rica Virtual, December 3rd, 2020.
II. Webinar Series
IFCC TF-YS obtained an unrestricted grant form Thermo Fisher to support a webinar about
Automatization in Mass Spectrometry. Due to COVID-19 and the impossibility to coordinate
with the 3 selected speakers we decided to postpone it until 2021.
III. Mentorship programme Interviews
3 Mentorship Interviews published on the IFCC website: https://www.ifcc.org/task-forceyoung-scientists-web-pages/mentorship-programme/
IV. Lab-Surfing
Lab-Surfing.com is now upgraded with new features LinkedIn, Hospital / Laboratory information,
Mentor information, monthly newsletters. Registered users: 794 (December 2020)
V. TFYS Survey
Now the members have been added approx. 2000 globally to all social media channels. Claudia
Imperiali is coordinating the global survey on Residency Training to understand the differencesin Laboratory Medicine training around the world. The goal of this survey is to publish theresults.
VI. El Microscopio
Active participation in the selection of interviews and creation of questions for the different
topics.
VII. DIV
During 2020 we published 3 articles in the YS section: https://www.ifcc.org/div/
VIII. SJBM video
This initiative, as well as the edition of the video, was conducted by a union of young medical
biologists from France (SJBM), with the support of the national representative society SFBC
and IFCC-TF-YS.
To improve visibility and promotion of laboratory medicine professionals at an international
level, different YS from all around the world created a video with the attached text message:“You may not see lab workers, but all over the world, they are devoting all of their energy to fight
COVID19 pandemic. Your health and security, our priority.” The video was shared on YouTube
and Facebook with currently more than 140 000 views.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMz6Gl9xsOY&feature=youtu.bePlan of Actions for 2021
I. TF-YS educational sessions & networking 2021:
1. IFCC TF-YS online session during IFCC virtual conference - Critical role of clinicallaboratories in COVID-19 pandemic. February 2021.
2. 1st EFLM/AFCB Conference & 34th National Days of Clinical Biology - Digital Version- “Laboratory Medicine for Mobile Societies” 34th National Days of Clinical Biology February 18th, 19th and 20th 2021
72

Young scientists confronting COVID-19 pandemic.
Moderators: Mohamed Yassine Kaabar (TN), Rami S.H Assaad Khalil (EG) Pradeep
Kumar Dabla (IN);Young scientists’ opportunities during COVID-19 pandemic- Santiago Fares Taie
(Argentina);
COVID-19 infodemic, misinformation and fake news: What can young scientists
do? Giulia Sancesario (IT);C-Reactive Protein and procalcitonin: Biomarkers for severity, treatment andprognosis of COVID-19 Jitender Sharma (IN);
Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on packed red blood cell units’ supply in a
Tunisian blood deposit Emna Hammami (TN)
3. EUROMEDLAB Congress, Munich, 28th November – 2nd December 2021.
IFCC TF-YS symposium:
Moderators: Rosa Sierra Amor (MX), Santiago Fares Taie (AG)Motivation in the Clinical Laboratory - Santiago Fares Taie (AG);Time Management Tools for the Young Laboratory Professional - Joe El-Khoury(US);
Career management for Young Laboratory Scientists - Giulia Sancesario (IT);Conflict Management amongst Young Laboratory Scientists - Ashlin Rampul (ZA).
4. Organizing: TF-YS Functional meeting at EUROMEDLAB Congress, Munich, December
2021.
5. Young Scientist Session at CALILAB 2021, Argentina.
II. Webinar Series & Mentorship programme Interviews
Next 3 webinars series to be continued with L3 Healthcare for organizing and technical help.
Suggested Topics: “Rapid test for COVID-19 diagnosis”, “Microbiota / Metagenomics”, “Cancer
Immunotherapy”, “analysis of extravascular body fluids”, “CRISPER – Sherlock”, “Mobile healthand chronic diseases”, “Biomarkers for neuro degenerative diseases”, “Auto-verification in
LIS”, “Latest innovations in Laboratory Medicine” and as per need and suggestion of young
colleagues.
III. Lab-Surfing
Lab-Surfing is a Laboratory professional social media designed and created in order to fulfil theobjectives of IFCC-TFYS & unattended needs of Young Scientists (YS) globally. In a continuing
evolving Laboratory Medicine profession with new technologies and methods every year, YS
find exchange programmes and communication essential to widen their horizons and sharpen
the laboratory skills.
Lab-Surfing.com needs to continue improving communication among YS. Social media
including Facebook and Instagram will be addressed to achieve this goal.
IV. Capillary programmeThis programme aim to increase the participation of TFYS corresponding members during
national meetings. It is an initiative of Dr Giulia Sancesario in her plan for the TFYS. What is
the CP: The CP is the formation of a network of thousands of YSs all around the world, bystimulating the formation of YS-WGs within the national societies which belong to the IFCC.
And Connecting already existing WGs under the umbrella of the IFCC.
A Survey was conducted of corresponding members, and National YS-WGs have been mapped.
V. Clinical Case Study
We plan to develop a clinical case study with Q&A for the YS to increase participation andopinion exchange. Expert participation will be required for the clinical case interpretation andexplanation.
73VI. El Microscopio
Active participation in the selection of interviews and creation of questions for the different topics.
VII. DIV
Every DIV publication has one section for Young Scientists with a note of relevant information.
Participation of Maria Eugenia Shroeder, Alvaro Justiniano Cortez and Santiago Fares Taie.
VIII. YS SECTION IN IFCC JOURNALYS have been offered a special section in IFCC journal to publish scientific articles.
IX. Professional Scientific Exchange Programme (PSEP).
IFCC president (Prof. Adeli Khosrow) intends to promote and expand the PSEP. It is not a TF-YS
project, but it is our duty to share and promote this programmes among YS.
X. YS Worldwide Survey
Dr. Claudia Imperiali will be in charge of coordinating the YS Survey to dilucidated the differencesamong careers around the world. This is an ambitious project that will include answers from the
5 continents. The results will be published in IFCC Journal.
XI. Social MediaDr Ashlin Rampul and Dr. Intan Wibawanti Masfufa will focus on social media: Facebook,
Instagram, Twitter to improve visibility and information about the projects that are been promotedby the IFCC TF-YS.
XII. Leadership Workshop for YS of Latin America
Promote the development of a critical mass of young leaders, with leadership skills and strategicplanning of projects with social impact.
The Workshop will be promoted by YS members of the TS-YS from Latin America.
XIII. IFCC TF-YS Leadership Workshop
Promote the development of a critical mass of young leaders, with leadership skills and strategicplanning of projects with social impact. The Workshop will be promoted by YS members of the
TS-YS.
Santiago Fares Taie, TF-YS Chair
Giulia Sancesario, TF-YS Co-Chair

Task Force History (TF-H)
Almost 20 years after the first edition of the IFCC Milestones (Kobe 2002) and before thepublication of the next 70 years IFCC anniversary book (2002-2022), this “IFCC Milestones
2002 - 2020 Golden Achievements” edition is providing an update on the evolution of the
IFCC since the beginning of the 21st Century. The IFCC Milestones 2002-2020 is dedicated toProfessor Howard Morris who occupied, with boundless enthousiam, a unique position in thehistory of the IFCC. The e new “IFCC 2002 - 2020 Milestones” will allow you to learn more about
the IFCC, its function and its operations, as well as to better understand the IFCC spirit andmission statement to continue being the leading organisation in the field of laboratory medicine.
http://www.ifcc.org/media/478750/ifcc_milestones_2020_web.pdf
IFCC has been subject to waves of changes in the past twenty years. The world is changing,society is changing, technology is changing, and so laboratory medicine and IFCC are. With
this in mind, the TF on History is preparing the 70th anniversary history book to be distributedat Worldlab Roma 2023 . The objective is to better understand the evolution and transformation74

of IFCC, and to analyse, the impact of the innovation and disruptive technologies on theevolution of IFCC scientific activities, strategies and governance since the beginning of the
new millennium facing the transformation of the healthcare systems and societal needs.
Mathias M. Mülller and Bernard Gouget, TF-H Chairs

Task Force Corporate Members (TF-CM)
Background:
In order to strengthen the collaboration between IFCC and its Corporate Members and to better
address their specific needs and challenges, the IFCC Executive Board established the IFCC
Task Force Corporate Members (TF-CM) reporting directly to the IFCC Executive Board. The
intention behind this is:• Better representation of Corporate Members within IFCC and better understanding of
their needs• Receiving advice from Corporate Members to improve the practice of laboratory
medicine• Facilitate discussion among Corporate Members and identification of common topics• Improving engagement of Corporate Members• Direct dialogue with the IFCC Executive Board
Meetings held:• March 17: two hour video conference• July 2: two hour video conference• October 1: two hour video conference
No in-person meetings could be held due to the pandemic.
Topics focused on in 2020:
1. To develop structures and processes for improved communication / engagement among
Corporate Members:• the EB agreed to allow the TF to communicate directly with all corporate members
without going through the IFCC office - ensures autonomy and independence• meeting minutes were distributed to all company representatives
2. To make real progress to promote the value provided by lab testing: build on COVID-19.
3. To investigate how to create formal collaboration channels between the IFCC, regulatorsand clinical societies:• to reduce the regulatory burden via harmonized global regulatory requirements• to harmonize standards and guidelines• to achieve more favorable reimbursement
4. To share best practices with respect to the In-vitro Diagnostica Regulation (IVDR).
5. To ensure full compliance to the MedTech Europe Code compliance rules.
6. To provide actionable input to the EB on frequency, venues, and locations of IFCC
conferences to enhance value to its corporate members.
7. To encourage CMs to nominate colleagues for full membership to all Committees,
Working Groups and Task Forces (not just corresponding membership).
8. To promote the significant contributions being made by corporate members to the IFCC
EB, to all its members and the outside world.
Topics for 2021:
1. To update and refine the TF-CM Terms of Reference.
2. To develop a strategic IFCC / Corporate Member roadmap.
3. To develop a process to assess costs versus value for any corporate sponsorship or75

funding request.
4. To provide direct input to the EB on the value to corporate members for new Task Forces,
Committees and Working Groups being considered.
5. To continue to provide input to the EB on frequency, venues, and locations of IFCC
conferences to enhance value to its corporate members.
6. To further improve and enhance Corporate Members’ engagement:
A survey to all CMs will be initiated to better understand needs and interests to maximize
the value of IFCC membership.
7. To engage other professions and different stakeholders beyond traditional laboratory
medicine.
8. To develop processes that could support the IFCC to influence global regulations andguidelines.
9. To pursue the opportunities of data analytics in laboratory diagnostics.
Future / Proposed Meetings:• January 8, 2021: three hour video conference• Virtual meeting in the Spring• Meeting in early Summer, either in person or virtually, depending on the pandemic• In late September in conjunction with the AACC conference• In late November in Munich, Germany in conjunction with EuroMedLab 2021
The TF-CM chair will need to step down with his transition to the EB as the next Corporate
Representative. Nonetheless, he will remain on the TF-CM in 2021 as a member and as the EB
Corporate Representative. This will ensure continuity.
The TF-CM is in excellent hands moving forward in 2021 under the new leadership of Ms. Tricia
Ravalico who was appointed by the EB at the end of 2020.
Joseph Passarelli, TF-CM Chair

Task Force on COVID-19
Background
The leading objectives of this TF encompass the provision of regular updates on epidemiology,
pathogenesis and laboratory diagnostics of COVID-19, the development of practical
recommendations for harmonizing the use of diagnostic tests for COVID-19 and biosafetymeasures for managing the specimens, as well as the organization of international studies
to improve the knowledge on pathogenesis, diagnostics and therapeutic management of
COVID-19
Educational sessions, workshop, functional meeting conducted:• 2020 Lectureship on Critical Care Medicine on COVID-19. COVID-19 – approach tolaboratory testing and biosafety. Speaker Panel: Giuseppe Lippi, Khosrow Adeli.
Moderator: Dr. David Kinniburgh• IFCC Free Webinar on COVID-19 Guidelines on Molecular, Serological and Biochemical/
Hematological Testing - 23 September, 2020. Speaker Panel: Giuseppe Lippi (Italy),
Andrea Rita Horvath (Australia), and Khosrow Adeli (Canada); Chair: Khosrow Adeli• Virtual Conference: Critical Role of Clinical Laboratories in COVID-19 Pandemic. 15 - 17
February, 2021.
Articles published:• Setting minimum clinical performance specifications for tests based on diseaseprevalence and minimum acceptable positive and negative predictive values: Practical
76

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

considerations applied to COVID-19 testing. Loh TP, Lord SJ, Bell K, Bohn MK, Lim
CY, Markus C, Fares Taie H, Adeli K, Lippi G, Sandberg S, Horvath A. Clin Biochem.
2021 Feb;88:18-22. doi: 10.1016/j.clinbiochem.2020.11.003. Epub 2020 Nov 20. PMID:
33227233 Free PMC article.
Editorial and Executive Summary: IFCC Interim Guidelines on Clinical Laboratory testing
during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Lippi G, Horvath AR, Adeli K. Clin Chem Lab Med. 2020
Oct 7;58(12):1965-1969. doi: 10.1515/cclm-2020-1415. PMID: 33027045 No abstract
available.
IFCC Interim Guidelines on Biochemical/Hematological Monitoring of COVID-19
Patients. Thompson S, Bohn MK, Mancini N, Loh TP, Wang CB, Grimmler M, Yuen
KY, Mueller R, Koch D, Sethi S, Rawlinson WD, Clementi M, Erasmus R, Leportier M,
Kwon GC, Menezes ME, Patru MM, Gramegna M, Singh K, Najjar O, Ferrari M, Lippi
G, Adeli K, Horvath AR; IFCC Taskforce on COVID-19. Clin Chem Lab Med. 2020 Oct
7;58(12):2009-2016. doi: 10.1515/cclm-2020-1414. PMID: 33027044
IFCC Interim Guidelines on Serological Testing of Antibodies against SARS-CoV-2.
Bohn MK, Loh TP, Wang CB, Mueller R, Koch D, Sethi S, Rawlinson WD, Clementi M,
Erasmus R, Leportier M, Grimmler M, Yuen KY, Mancini N, Kwon GC, Menezes ME,
Patru MM, Gramegna M, Singh K, Najjar O, Ferrari M, Horvath AR, Lippi G, Adeli K; andthe IFCC Taskforce on COVID-19. Clin Chem Lab Med. 2020 Oct 7;58(12):2001-2008.
doi: 10.1515/cclm-2020-1413. PMID: 33027043
IFCC Interim Guidelines on Molecular Testing of SARS-CoV-2 Infection. Bohn MK,
Mancini N, Loh TP, Wang CB, Grimmler M, Gramegna M, Yuen KY, Mueller R, Koch D,
Sethi S, Rawlinson WD, Clementi M, Erasmus R, Leportier M, Kwon GC, Menezes ME,
Patru MM, Singh K, Ferrari M, Najjar O, Horvath AR, Adeli K, Lippi G. Clin Chem Lab
Med. 2020 Oct 7;58(12):1993-2000. doi: 10.1515/cclm-2020-1412. PMID: 33027042
Staff rostering, split team arrangement, social distancing (physical distancing) and useof personal protective equipment to minimize risk of workplace transmission during
the COVID-19 pandemic: A simulation study. Lim CY, Bohn MK, Lippi G, Ferrari M,
Loh TP, Yuen KY, Adeli K, Horvath AR; IFCC Task Force on COVID-19. Clin Biochem.
2020 Dec;86:15-22. doi: 10.1016/j.clinbiochem.2020.09.003. Epub 2020 Sep 12. PMID:
32926883 Free PMC article.
Laboratory practices to mitigate biohazard risks during the COVID-19 outbreak: an IFCC
global survey. Loh TP, Horvath AR, Wang CB, Koch D, Lippi G, Mancini N, Ferrari M,
Hawkins R, Sethi S, Adeli K; International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory
Medicine Taskforce on COVID-19. Clin Chem Lab Med. 2020 Jun 4;58(9):1433-1440.
doi: 10.1515/cclm-2020-0711. Print 2020 Aug 27. PMID: 32549123
Operational considerations and challenges of biochemistry laboratories during the
COVID-19 outbreak: an IFCC global survey. Loh TP, Horvath AR, Wang CB, Koch D,
Adeli K, Mancini N, Ferrari M, Hawkins R, Sethi S, Lippi G; International Federation ofClinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine Taskforce on COVID-19. Clin Chem Lab
Med. 2020 Jun 4;58(9):1441-1449. doi: 10.1515/cclm-2020-0710. Print 2020 Aug 27.
PMID: 32549122
Molecular, serological, and biochemical diagnosis and monitoring of COVID-19: IFCC
taskforce evaluation of the latest evidence. Bohn MK, Lippi G, Horvath A, Sethi S, Koch
D, Ferrari M, Wang CB, Mancini N, Steele S, Adeli K. Clin Chem Lab Med. 2020 Jun
25;58(7):1037-1052. doi: 10.1515/cclm-2020-0722. PMID: 32459192 Review.
Biosafety measures for preventing infection from COVID-19 in clinical laboratories: IFCC
Taskforce Recommendations. Lippi G, Adeli K, Ferrari M, Horvath AR, Koch D, Sethi S,
Wang CB. Clin Chem Lab Med. 2020 Jun 25;58(7):1053-1062. doi: 10.1515/cclm-20200633. PMID: 32396137

Other activities:77• Developing and maintaining the IFCC Information Guide on COVID-19, an online resource
providing key information on laboratory guidelines, biosafety, and other importantresources to assist member societies around the world and their clinical laboratories as
they face the challenges posed by the COVID-19 outbreak.

Giuseppe Lippi, TF-COVID-19 Chair

78

FOUNDATION FOR EMERGING NATIONS – FEN
The activities of the FEN were severely impacted during 2020 as a result of the Covid-19
pandemic.
The FEN Board held two meetings in January and April during which it:• Approved the annual report and accounts for 2020
• Achieved tax exemption from the Swiss Regulatory Authority• Awarded four ‘Support a Professional Scholarships’ to applicants from Malawi, Vietnam
and Pakistan
The onset of the pandemic meant that it has not been possible for the scholarship recipients tovisit their host laboratories in S Korea and the UK. The scholarships have been held over into
2021.
Fundraising for the FEN is contingent on the completion of ongoing projects. Therefore, noattempts were made to raise fresh funding during the year.
The Board welcomed Mr Joseph Passarelli as representative of the IFCC Corporate Members.
The Board acknowledges the excellent support of Paola Bramati.
The Board hopes that 2021 will be a more productive and effective year.
Graham Beastall, FEN Chair

79

FEDERATIONSREGIONAL FEDERATIONS AFFILIATED WITH IFCC
There are six main Regional Professional Laboratory Medicine organizations which can beconsidered IFCC regional partners:- AFCB - Arab Federation of Clinical Biochemistry- AFCC - African Federation of Clinical Chemistry- APFCB - Asia-Pacific federation of Clinical Biochemistry- COLABIOCLI - Latin-American Confederation of Clinical Biochemistry- EFLM - European Federation Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine- NAFCC – North American Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine

AFCB
Arab Federation of Clinical
Biology
The Arab Federation of Clinical Biology is a Regional Federation of Associations, Societies andSyndicates of Laboratory Medicine specialists in Arab Countries. AFCB represents Laboratory
Medicine professionals practicing in scientific, educational, research institutes and in the private
sector as well. Almost all of the training of Arab Clinical Biology Societies in 2020 was delivered
through webinars, related to the pandemic (SARS-CoV-2). Majority of countries have restricted
and banned face-to-face meetings (congresses) and encouraged virtual contacts. The main
activities of 6 Arab Societies and AFCB were the following
Clinical biology Activities of the Arab Societies
1- Algeria - Association Nationale des Laboratoires d’Analyses Médicales (ALAM)− Biochemistry: Glycated haemoglobin - The automations of molecular biology;− Virology: Pertussis News, Biological diagnosis of measles, Screening for cervical cancer
by HPV;− Microbiology: Screening and confirmation of diagnosis of STIs, The diagnosis ofrespiratory infections;− Covid-19: Place of Biological Diagnosis in covid-19 disease, Diagnostic tools for
Covid-19 and feedback from public and private medical biology laboratories, 3 months
after the start of the epidemic in our country, Prize in biological load of SARS-CoV-2,
After Covid-19;− Autoimmunity: Chronic inflammatory bowel diseases: Controlling the continuum forappropriate management;− Quality: The fundamentals of quality control, Accreditation tools;− Genetics: Research for DPD deficiency;− Oncology: Place de Roche Diagnostics in oncology;− Endocrinology: Elecsys Androstenedione, a new assay for the management of
endocrinopathies, AMH and female fertility.
2- Lebanon: Syndicat des Biologistes du Liban (SBL)- Sars-Covid-2: When? How? Why? What hospital and health system labs need to know
about operational support and logistic during the Covid-19 outbreak;- Anticoagulant therapy webinar series in collaboration with the school of nursing and the80division of cardiology at the American University of Beirut Medical Center.
3- Libya: Libyan Association of Clinical Pathology (LACP)- Organization of local LACL training courses;- Collaboration with Libyan accreditation center to finalize the drafts of licensing
requirements;- Practical training and course in collaboration with scientific council of laboratory
medicine on Clinical Biochemistry, Clinical Haematology, and clinical microbiology, andblood bank modules;- Participation on setting medical laboratory national plan for Covid-19 management with
CDCs, Biotechnology center, and scientific council of laboratory medicine;- Planning for meeting with international cooperation office in ministry of health to organize
training in different laboratory subjects form International NGOs;- Providing a presentation on role of Flow cytometry in haematology malignancy diagnosis;- Joining Columbia University and institute of Pasteur in Tunis as member of panellist formonthly seminar on genetics in North Africa and Middle-East;- Attendance of universal health coverage workshop with WHO, and use of researchoutcome in policy making;- Attendance of seminar organized by WHO on quality in Fragile conflict vulnerable
countries.
4- Palestine: Medical Technology Association Palestine (PMTA)
During 2020, there were held some scientific events in the first two months of the year, andbecause of the Covid-19 pandemic all the events did not occur as planned- Scientific Conference: Road to the laboratory informatics: instruments, software, safety,
and data management;- Scientific Lecture: Thalassemia Trait Diagnosis;- Scientific Lectures: The importance of the continuous education in keeping up with thescientific development;- 2nd scientific Days.
5- Saudi Arabia: Saudi Society for Clinical Chemistry (SSCC)- 2nd International Meeting in Clinical Chemistry & Laboratotory Medicine & 6th Annual
Meeting Saudi Society for Clinical Chemistry, Saudi Arabia (virtual meeting);- 2 Journal Club Meetings;- Pediatric Laboratory Medicine;- Selected Topics in Genetic Cancer – Alborg;- Covid-19: Laboratory Medicine & COVID-19 , How does the laboratory services functionin the Covid-19 outbreak, Covid-19 Webinar on laboratory medicine , Experience Sharing
from South Korea and UK, Covid-19 Webinar on Inflammation Biomarkers , Critical CareManagement of Covid-19 patients , Interpretation of Procalcitonin at the Bedside &Clinical Utility of Procalcitonin in Covid-19 Patient;- 1st Saudi international conference for clinical laboratory sciences (partner);- Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) Awareness day webinar;- Genomic Medicine and its Application in Saudi health care system;- Prostate cancer awareness;- 2nd International Meeting in clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine;- 6th Annual Conference Saudi Society for Clinical Chemistry and Workshop.
6-Tunisie: Société Tunisienne de Biologie Clinique (STBC)- Covid-19: Regional meetings ALAM/SJBM/SMCC/SFBC/FIFBCML: The medical
biologist facing Covid-19,- 3 Biologist’s Wednesday (Case-reports presentation and discussion);- Laboratory diagnostic procedure in front of polycythemia;81-Pre-analytical phase in biochemistry;
Antibiogram in 2020;
Tropical cutaneous mycosis encountered in Tunisia;
SEPSIS DAY 2020;
Diagnosis and management of the haemolytic disease of the foetus and new-born;
Quality management in microbiology and in parasitology;
Antifongigram.

AFCB Activities (2020)
 EFLM/AFCB Collaboration
EFLM-AFCB Steering committee for Laboratory Medicine in Mobile Societies (JTF
-LM4MS) has organized three meeting: the 1st face to face Steering Committee meeting
January 25, 2020 Hammamet Tunisia, and 2 Virtual meetings:− Objective: preparation of the EFLM / AFCB (LM4MS) congress on February 1820,2021.
Mission Statement of the EFLM/AFCB collaboration:“The European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFLM) andthe Arab Federation of Clinical Biology (AFCB) recognize the importance of working
together in order to collaborate on specific issues that have been identified as being
mutually important in the Federations´ realm of expertise and professional activities.
Especially they recognize that today´s societies are characterized by an increasing
mobility of their citizens both within the Federations´ borders, but also across theMediterranean region defining the geographical interface between the Federations.
Increasingly, migration and getaway movements are the consequence of unrest,
war and socio-political instability often leaving the victims in desperate need for
health care not only upon entering EFLM and AFCB member countries, but also
beyond their point of entry during their continued migration through the Federations´territories. In consequence EFLM and AFCB recognize the importance of jointly
supporting the evolution of comprehensive laboratory strategies in the context ofmobile societies and people migration by networking health care Professionals in
the Mediterranean region.
 Future Activities of AFCB
− AFCB/EB Virtual Meeting February18-20, 2021 Hammamet Tunisia;− 16th virtual and hybrid AFCB Congress Lebanon May -27-29 , 2021;− 17th AFCB congress Morocco 2024.
Abderrazek Hedhili, AFCB Representative

82

AFCC
African Federation of Clinical Chemistry2020 disrupted many of the activities that the AFCC had proposed. However we were still able
to achieve a few which are listed below:
1. We developed a plan for 2020/21
2. AFCC supported the 5th Annual meeting of Chemical Pathology/MRC/Universityof Alexandria, Egypt, 15-16th February, 2020 at which 5 speakers from South Africa
participated
3. AFCC developed and submitted a draft POCT Policy for Egypt to Ministry of Health,Egypt, March, 2020
4. The AFCC assisted in organizing a POCT conference (postponed due to COVID 19)
5. AFCC supported the organization of the Malawian Association of Laboratory Scientists
Inaugural Conference, Lilongwe, Malawi, 19 -21st February, 2020 – Invited talks – Prof
Erasmus
6. South African Association of Clinical Biochemistry organized several Expert Webinars4th June, 2020 – Dr Westgard, 19th August, 2020, Modern Urine Analysis – Prof Delanghe
15th July 2020, Diabetes from differential diagnosis to risk estimation – Dr Gruson
7. AFCC has interacted with Biochemical Society of Zambia to organize AFCC Regional
Conference from 23-25th September, 2021, Lusaka, Zambia
8. AFCC was invited to participate in Kenyan Association of Clinical Pathology Conference,
Nairobi, Kenya, 13-16, October, 2020 (Speaker, Prof Erasmus, President, AFCC)
9. AFCC participated in Malawian Association of Medical laboratory Scientists Webinar on
Leadership 7th December, 2020 by giving a talk on Ethical Leadership
10. AFCC has been engaging actively with African Society of Laboratory Medicine to support
joint academic activities in Africa
11. AFCC is in the process of revamping its website
On behalf of AFCC Board, we would like to thank IFCC leadership for continuing to support
AFCC and its activities. It truly continues to make a difference
Rajiv Erasmus, AFCC President
Hilary Lumano, AFCC Secretary
Aramide Onakoya, AFCC Treasurer

83

APFCB
Asia-Pacific Federation of Clinical Biochemistry
and Laboratory Medicine
Education and Laboratory Management Committee Report
The Education and Laboratory Management Committee (C-ELM) consists of the following: Lia
Gardenia Partakusuma (Indonesia); Tze Ping Loh (Singapore); Ronda Greaves (Australia); Elina
Raja (Malaysia); July Kumalawati (Indonesia); Endang Hoyaranda (Indonesia); Jozi Habijanic(Roche Corporate); Amit Manjure (Siemens Corporate); Rojeet Shrestha (Japan); Hong-yew Lim(Roche Corporate).
The impact of the global pandemic of 2020 has restricted many of the activities of the C-ELM,
however we have continued with existing projects as well as some new initiatives.
APFCB Travelling Lecturer
The APFCB Visiting Lecturer for 2021/22 is Helen Martin from Australia. Whilst there are travel
restrictions on this key role, virtual lectures will continue. On the 26th November 2020, Helen
was a Plenary Lecturer at the MACB meeting and delivered a lecture entitled “Adding value withpatient report commenting.”
APFCB - Roche – 12th Chemical Pathology Course – Vietnam
This is an ongoing annual event organised by Roche in collaboration with Rhonda Greaves
from Australia. In 2020, the virtual event attracted approximately 400 participants and consistedof a mixture of invited and local speakers presenting on routine chemical pathology topics.
The course is supported and endorsed by many prestigious local and international medicalorganizations and associations, such as International Federation of Clinical Chemistry andLaboratory Medicine (IFCC), Asia-Pacific Federation for Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory
Medicine (APFCB), Australasian Association of Clinical Biochemists (AACB), Vietnamese
Association of Clinical Biochemists (VACB), Ho Chi Minh City Association of Clinical Biochemists(HACB), Ho Chi Minh City Association of Medical Laboratory Technologists (HAMLT), Bach Mai
Hospital, Cho Ray Hospital and other medical organizations and Associations
APFCB / VACB / Roche Lean Project
The Lean project continues with the support of Roche in Vietnam though at a reduced pacebecause of COVID-19.
APFCB Becton Dickinson Pre-Analytical Improvement Project
The collaboration of APFCB with BD to provide our members with a digital guideline for preanalytical procedures has now been finalised with the first part which contains:
Module A1 - Phlebotomist Attributes
Module A2 - Specimen Collection via Venipuncture
Module A3 - Specimen Collection via Vascular Access Devices
Module A4 - Specimen Transportation.
All are in the format of PDF slides, in English.
The next Modules will be Module B1 - Continuous Improvement and B2 - Troubleshooting.
APFCB-AACC Workshops
The APFCB has been collaborating with the AACC with their Global Lab Quality Initiative (GLQI)
as part of the Asia Pacific Working Group (APWG). It was not possible to run any workshops in
2020, however it is planned to run one in Mongolia in August 2021.
The C-ELM has organised a two-day virtual workshop on Laboratory Testing of COVID-19. The
program is given below.
APFCB virtual workshop Complete Guide on Laboratory Testing of COVID-19
As the information of laboratory diagnosis and monitoring of COVID-19 in rapidly evolving withnew information arising in daily basis, laboratory professional need a constant update on the84

developments. Furthermore, many developing countries are struggling to meet requirementof appropriate testing not only because of lack of resources but also due to lack well-trainedlaboratory professionals on the molecular assays. To help lab professionals with appropriate
guide in COVID-19 testing, APFCB committee for Education and Laboratory Management is
glad to present a virtual workshop that contain a series of lectures from experts as a complete
guide on Laboratory Testing of COVID-19. The complete list of presentations available are as
follow. Certificate of participation will be provided to the participants after completion of thewebinar.
• Lecture 1: Epidemiology and Clinical Aspects of COVID-19
Speaker: Ranjit Sah, Assistant Professor, Institute of Medicine, TU Teaching Hospital, Nepal• Lecture 2: General aspect of Laboratory diagnosis of COVID-19
Speaker: Tjan Sian Hwa, Head of Clinical Laboratory Department Premier Jatinegara
Hospital, Jakarta, Indonesia• Lecture 3: Basic on molecular assays for the detection of SARS-CoV-2
Speaker: Rojeet Shrestha, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, Hokkaido
University, Japan• Lecture 4: Technical guide to establishing a molecular diagnostics laboratory
Speaker: July Kumalawati, lecturer, Clinical Pathology Department, Medical Faculty,
Universitas Indonesia• Lecture 5: Method evaluation, validation and Quality control for NAAT of COVID-19
Speaker: Miswar Fattah, Indonesia• Lecture 6: Molecular POCT for COVID-19
Speaker: Donal Huda Nasil, National Public Health Laboratory, Malaysia• Lecture 7: Serological testing for COVID-19
Speaker: July Kumalawati, lecturer, Clinical Pathology Department, Medical Faculty,
Universitas Indonesia• Lecture 8: Biochemical monitoring of severe covid-19 and laboratory biosafety
Speaker: Kay Weng Choy, Chemical pathologist, Northern Pathology Victoria, Australia• Lecture 9: IFCC Guidelines on Molecular & Serological Testing of SARS-CoV-2 andBiochemical Monitoring of COVID-19 Patients
Speaker: Khosrow Adeli, President IFCC
Scientific Committee Report
Mass Spectrometry Harmonisation WG
The Mass Spectrometry Harmonisation WG which is Chaired by Dr Ronda Greaves is undertaking
a multicentre study of the influence of internal standard on the analysis of 17-hydroxyprogesterone
by LCMSMS, in association with RCPAQAP – AACB and IFCC Emerging Technologies Division
Paediatric Hormonics Working Group.
Publication: Influence of isotopically labeled internal standards on quantification of serum/plasma
17α-hydroxyprogesterone (17OHP) by liquid chromatography mass spectrometry. Loh TP, Ho
CS, Hartmann MF, Zakaria R, Lo CWS, van den Berg S, de Rijke YB, Cooke BR, Hoad K, Graham
P, Davies SR, Mackay LG, Wudy SA, Greaves RF. Clin Chem Lab Med 2020;58(10):1731-9.
APFCB-WASPaLM TF-CKD
APFCB / WASPaLM Task Force on Chronic Kidney Disease which is chaired by Dr Pavai
Sthaneswar is undertaking a survey of testing and reporting practices for CKD related
laboratory indices in the region in order to ascertain concordance of reporting practices withcurrent guidelines and industry standards. It is hoped that the results of the survey would help
harmonize practice according to current recommendations throughout the region.
WG on Diabetes Testing Harmonisation in APFCB Region
The Diabetes Testing Harmonisation WG chaired by Dr Mithu Banerjee is similarly conducting85

surveys of diabetes testing and reporting practices in the region. Results of surveys conductedin the Philippines and India have been presented at the PAMET conference in 2018 and the
APFCB Congress in 2019 respectively. Surveys have been concluded in Sri Lanka and Singapore
and the results are being analysed for publication. It is clear that whilst most laboratories follow
recommended practices, there is some lag in laboratory practices in some areas which could
benefit from activities to harmonize and update practice. Ideally, this would be locally driven,
led by each national professional body, but APFCB would certainly support these activities
going forward.
Publication: Trends in laboratory testing practice for diabetes mellitus. Banerjee M, Vasikaran S.
eJIFCC 2020;31:(3):231-41.
Harmonization of Reference Intervals WG
The Harmonization of Reference Intervals WG chaired by Dr Tze Ping Loh plans to derive andcompare indirect reference intervals from paediatric to geriatric subjects from laboratories
within the Asia-Pacific region. To achieve this, they are calling on interested laboratories thatare serving primary care (Non-hospital) patients to contribute de-identified laboratory results forderivation of indirect reference intervals study. The output of this study will be returned to theparticipating laboratories to help inform their practices. It is hoped that the results of this study
may contribute towards regionally relevant paediatric to geriatric reference intervals for patientcare, as well as provide insights into biological variation within the region.
Submitted for publication in CCLM: Comparison of nine methods for univariate statisticalexclusion of unhealthy subpopulations for indirect biological variation and reference intervals
studies. Tan RZ, Markus C, Vasikaran S, Loh TP.
WG to Analyse Laboratory Data for Improving Diagnostics
Dr Mohamed Saleem is chairing a WG to Analyse Laboratory Data for Improving Diagnostics.
Results of benchmarking surveys in the region will be used to support healthcare goals
for improved disease management. The support of Roche Diagnostics for this activity is
acknowledged.
Masterclass in Interpretative Commenting on Clinical Chemistry Reports - Webinars
Webinars to discuss and analyse interpretative comments and to educate laboratory
professionals on the addition of interpretative commenting are in progress. Five Webinars on
various endocrine topics have been concluded with wide participation from the region. Future
webinars are planned on a monthly basis. I would like to acknowledge the immense support of
Dr Pearline Teo of Siemens Healthcare Pte Ltd for this activity. The recordings of the webinars
and resource materials are available on the APFCB website under the heading of Webinars:
https://www.apfcb.org/webinars.html
Communications and Publications Committee(C-CP)
Dr. Raja Elina Raja Aziddin, Chair,
Dr. Purvi Purohit – Web Editor
Dr. Rojeet Shrestha – Media Cordinator
Dr. Pradeep Dabla
Will Greene – Roche
Lim Ai Tin - Siemens
The main objective of the APFCB Communications and Publications Committee(C-CP) is tocommunicate and promote the activities of APFCB to clinical laboratory personnel, cliniciansand health care policy makers in its member countries, in the region and worldwide. The C-CP
is responsible for the online publication of APFCB news, for the development and promotionof the APFCB website and coordination of the online activities of the APFCB. It also provides
information and educational material in electronic form to National Societies and Full Members,
86

Corporate and Affiliate Members.
Realising how the Covid-19 pandemic had disrupted the many scheduled seminars, conferences
and training courses, the C-CP took the initiative since April 2020, to actively update the APFCB
website with the latest information on webinars, online courses, virtual conferences of the
APFCB, its member societies and international professional bodies so as to provide its members
access to education and training. In addition to this, scientific publications, guidelines, recorded
and live webinars on COVID-19 and other topics of interest have been uploaded on the APFCB
website.
Realising how social media has become a powerful platform to communicate and disseminate
news and information, the C-CP had since August 2020, started to actively use this powerfultool. News and updates of APFCB’s recent activities, publications, congress and events,
nominations and awards, and various eLearning materials produced by the APFCB are now
officially available on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.

Links to APFCB social media pages are as follows:
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/APFCB/Twitter: https://twitter.com/APFCB_LM
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/apfcb_lm/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/apfcb/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoiicTsnVX-COjklgZHQ54Q
Despite the pandemic, the C-CP was able to successfully publish two issues of the APFCBNews in 2020. The two issues highlighted the activities of APFCB member societies.
The newsletter also featured an article from APFCB Founding member and Past President, Dr
Tan It Koon.
The reports from member societies gave interesting insight how different countries in the region
were coping with the pandemic. Activities of the IFCC and APFCB Committees (Scientific,
Task force on CKD, Communication and Publications, Congresses & Conferences, Educationand Laboratory Management) were also reported in this issue. A feature article was contributedby APFCB Founding member and Past President, Dr Tan It Koon and a poem as a tribute tohealthcare front liners in the battle of Covid-19 by APFCB Past President, Mr Joseph Lopez.
The APFCB News 2020 Issue 2 also published 4 scientific articles that were contributed by its
corporate members.
Sunil Sethi, APFCB President

87

COLABIOCLI
Latin-American Confederationof Clinical Biochemistry
1.0 AFFILIATED NATIONAL SOCIETIES.
1. ARGENTINA - Biochemical Confederation of the Argentine Republic
2. BOLIVIA - Bolivian Society for Clinical Biochemistry
3. BRAZIL - Brazilian Society of Clinical Analysis
4. CHILE - Chilean Society of Clinical Chemistry
5. COLOMBIA - National College of Bacteriology of Colombia
6. COSTA RICA - College of Microbiologists of Costa Rica
7. DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - Dominican College of Bioanalyses
8. ECUADOR - Ecuadorian Society for Clinical Biochemistry (9. GUATEMALA - Association of Chemical Chemists and Bacteriologists of Guatemala
10. HONDURAS - Collegue of Microbiologists and Clinical Chemists of Honduras
11. MEXICO - Mexican College of Clinical Laboratory Sciences
12. PANAMA - National College of Clinical Laboratory Workers of Panama
13. PARAGUAY - Association of Biochemists of Paraguay
14. SPAIN - Spanish Associacion of Cinical Laboratory
15. URUGUAY - Uruguayan Biochemical Association
2.0 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE BOARD MEMBERS 2020-2021
President, Alvaro JUSTINIANO-GROSZ (BOLIVIA)
Past president, Stella RAYMONDO (URUGUAY)
Vice-President, Luis Fernando BARCELOS (BRAZIL)
Treasurer, Rosa Ines SCALIER (BOLIVIA)
Treasurer, Lisandra MORALES JURADO (BOLIVIA)
1st Member, Jovanna BORACE (PANAMA)
2nd Member, Fernando ANTUNEZ (URUGUAY)
3rd Member, Ma Elena ARREDONDO (CHILE)
Accounts Review Commission
Alejandra ARIAS (ARGENTINA)
Fernando VALLEJOS (ECUADOR)
Jezabel VITE-CASANOVA (MEXICO)Regional Representative at IFCC.
Rosa SIERRA-AMOR (2018-2020)
2.1 STRATEGIC PLAN (2020-2022)• Strengthening the institutional image;• Strengthening COLABIOCLI member associations;• Emphasizing on the participation of young professionals;• Promoting the strengthening of national regulatory regulations and frameworks, with theaim to recognize the quality management systems in laboratories;• Strengthening national structures that promote continuous quality improvement;• Strengthening the role of clinical biochemical professionals, clinical laboratory professionals
or their equivalents as part of the health team;• Identifying agenda items to expand lab territory;• Developing ongoing training programmes, facilitating access for different countries;• Strengthening relationships with universities and scientific institutions.

882.2 COLABIOCLI BUDGET
Prepared for the term 2020-2022
2.3 COLABIOCLI EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETINGS• COLABIOCLI Executive Committee meeting in Cochabamba - Bolivia two virtual meetings
with presidents of affiliated members national societies of COLABIOCLI in June andDecember 2020.
• Monthly Executive Committee meetings via online.
Rules and procedures were put in place for COLABIOCLI Scholarships, Proficiency
Testing programs for affiliated societies, Young scientist below 40 years old scholarships
applications, Auspices of Academic activities given by COLABIOCLI and the data base forthe Latin American training program.
3. LEGAL STATUS. The bank account is in Uruguay to avoid taxes charges based on country
economy differences.
4. COURSES, WEBINARS. CONSERVATORIES
4.1 Quality Management and good laboratory practices. Forum and conservatories- Quality Management. proposal for an interdisciplinary training for healthprofessionals;- Challenges of academic evaluation in virtuality;- Risk Management;- Strategies for developing virtual clinical laboratory practices.
4.2 Leadership course for affiliated COLABIOCLI Members in Latin America
4.3 Webinars- Glycosylated hemoglobin: analitic aspects and importance for the diagnosis andcontrol of diabetes mellitus;- Leadership and sustainable development of clinical laboratories and the role ofyoung professionals in collaboration with Costa Rica affiliated society.
4.4. Conservatories- Response from public health laboratories to the covid-19 latinoamerica pandemic;- Strategic planning of the post-pandemic clinical laboratory (Planificación estratégica
del laboratorio clínico post pandemia);- The laboratory’s role in pandemic;- The role of biochemical professionals challenged before and after the pandemic;- Biosecurity under the post-pandemic;- Challenges for vocational training virtual training tool;- University teaching linked with quality in times of virtuality;- Young professionals clinical laboratory challenges during covid 19 (Los jóvenes
profesionales del laboratorio clínico los desafíos a partir del covid 19);
- Management indicators in the clinical laboratory;- Safety and quality in hyperimmune plasma production for covid 19 patients.
5.0 ACTIVITIES AND PROJECTS WITH THE PANAMERICAN HEALTH ORGANIZATION (PAHO)SURVEYS. New items are to be incorporated to the previous survey, unfortunately difficulties
were found in most of the countries to complete the surveys.
6.0 DISSEMINATION OF THE LATINAMERICAN TRAINING PROGRAM
Update of the database of experts in different areas from affiliated countries.
7.0 PAN AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR CLINICAL VIROLOGY (PASCV).
Interest to organize a course at the XXV COLABIOCLI Congress in Leóon 2022
89

8.0 SBAC DIGITAL
Virtual event of the Brazilian society. 50 scholarships were given to each affiliated society of
COLABIOCLI. Themes of actuality and COVID-19.
9.0 WORKING GROUPS AND COMMISSIONS.
9.1 Commission of Academic Union and Management Affairs
Chair: Carlos Navarro (Argentina)
Iratxe López Pelayo. (Spain), Magaly Magariños Egüez (Bolivia), Manuel Arcas (Argentina),
Graciela Borthagaray. (Uruguay), Alba Marina Valdés de García (Guatemala), DanielRazo Morales (Mexico), Eduardo Antonio Rodríguez Vega (Panama), Rosanna Clotilde
Elías Peña (Dominican Republic).
https://colabiocli.com/comision-academico-gremial-y-de-gestion/
9.2 Pre-Analytical Working Group
Chair: Gabriel Oliveira Lima (Brazil)
Secretary: Beatriz Varela (Uruguay) Secretary
Members: Eduardo Aranda (Chile), Patricia Ochoa (Argentina), Ma. Elena Arredondo(Chile), Michelle Brennam (México), Patricia Ochoa (Ecuador), Silvia Flores (Perú),
https://colabiocli.com/grupo-de-trabajo-wg-pre-latam/
9.3 Accreditation Management working group.
Chair: Rosa Sierra-Amor. (Mexico)
Carlos Peruzzetto (Argentina), Leonardo Aguirre (Chile), Edgard Espinoza (Ecuador), Beatriz
Varela (Uruguay), Sandra Quintana (Mexico), Thamara Andrade (Ecuador)
Corresponding Members: Magali Magariños (Bolivia), Daniela Carrasco (Chile), Gina Laitano(Honduras), Rodrigo Ayala (Paraguay), Ana Ma. Piana (Uruguay)
Consultants: Milena Monari (Chile), Roberto Carboni (Chile).
Observer: Victor Baltazar (Mexico)
https://colabiocli.com/grupo-de-trabajo-gestion-de-acreditacion/
9.4 Bioethics Working Group.
Chair: Nilda Fink (Argentina)
Graciela Queiruga (Uruguay), Olga Torre (Guatemala), Marta Ascurra (Paraguay), Garbiñe
Saruwatari-Zabala (Mexico), Fernando Momo (Argentina).
9.5 Young Scientist Latin America Group.
Proposal for the creation of the Latin American Group of Young Scientists. Professionals in
Biochemistry and equivalent degrees in Latin America
10 SCHOLARSHIPS
Scholarships were given to several professionals from COLABIOCLI affiliated societies to attend
various activities and events as described here bellow.
1) Virtual Diplomate to quality control of clinical analysis: Costa Rica, Paraguay and Uruguay;2) Virtual Diplomate in Bacteriology and antimicrobial susceptibility: Panama, Paraguay,
Bolivia;3) International Diplomate on Analytical Quality Management based on ISO 15189: Uruguay,
Costa Rica, Panama;
4) International Diplomate on Uranalysis: Paraguay, Bolivia, Uruguay;5) International Diplomate on Diagnosis in Hematology: Guatemala, Panama, Costa Rica;
6) Virtual Diplomate on Clinical Pathology for the Laboratory (3rd generation): Uruguay,
Costa Rica and Bolivia;
907) On Line Couse on Techniques and Stain for the Diagnosis of Vector Transmitted
Hemoparasitosis: Costa Rica, Bolivia and Panama;8) There are two more courses to be assigned, one is on Urinary Mycosis and on Medical
Mycology.
9) Ten more scholarships to laboratory professionals based on the agreement with AEFA forthe course Verification of Quantitative Analytical Methods.
10) A three months scholarship for a professional from Latin America sponsored in fullby the Foundation Jose Luis Castaños of the Spanish Society of Laboratory Medicine(SEQC) that included travel and lodging expenses.
11 XXV LATIN AMERICAN CONGRESS OF CLINICAL BIOCHEMISTRY AND II CONGRESS
OF THE MEXICAN ASSOCIATION OF CLINICAL LABORATORY SCIENCES.
A new date was assigned to the XXV COLABIOCLI Congress due to Covid 19 pandemic.
COLABIOCLI and the affiliated society hosting the congress, the CMCLabC agreed to postpone
it to March 30 to April 2nd 2022. The new date was informed to IFCC and to the affiliatedmember societies.
For the XXV COLABIOCLI Congress, the following commissions were assigned: Administration,
Scientific Activities, Logistics, and infrastructure, Advertising and Publications, Congress
Agenda, Preliminary Program and other business related to the congress advertising process.
12 CONGRESS OF COLABIOCLI AFFILIATED SOCIETIES.
12.1 XIII Uruguayan Congress of Clinical Biochemistry – First virtual Congress of the
Uruguayan Biochemistry Association. ¨COLABIOCLI¨ Round Table Discussion: «Vision
and Challenges of Biochemical Professionals and equivalent titles of Latin America andthe Caribbean” October 15-17, 2020.
12.2 Auspices to the first virtual Congress of the National College of Bacteriology ofColombia, “The challenge of Innovating”, November 14-17, 2020.
13. IFCC
Reports to IFCC EB were done by the Regional Representative periodically.
COLABIOCLI scholarships were provided with the support of IFCC.
Simultaneous Translation was authorized for the XIII Uruguayan Congress of Clinical
Biochemistry. First Virtual congress and three IFCC VLP on line were also approved.
The organization of an IFCC Virtual Conference on Covid 19 for February 2021, included theparticipation of five Latin American scientists.
14. RULES AND PROCEDURES
Rules and procedures had been put in place for COLABIOCLI Scholarships, Proficiency Testing
programs for affiliated societies, Young scientist below 40 years old scholarships applications,
Auspices of Academic activities given by COLABIOCLI and the data base for the Latin American
training program.
15.0 COLABIOCLI COLLABORATORS
1. Portugal was accepted as collaborator of COLABIOCLI by the Executive Board. The
National society will be formally presented at the next COLABIOCLI Assembly taking place
during the Brazilian Society congress in November 2021.
2. Brazilian Proficiency Testing PNCQ under the auspices of the Brazilian Society of ClinicalAnalyses signed an agreement with COLABIOCLI to provide 30 proficiency testing
programs to laboratories from COLABIOCLI Affiliated societies during one year. An
education program was organized virtually on THE IMPORTANCE OF THE EXTERNALQUALITY ASSESSMENT PROGRAMS (EQAS), and on the IMPLEMENTATION OF
INTERNAL QUALITY CONTROLS IN CLINICAL LABORATORIES.
91

16.0 COLABIOCLI Web page.
- Strengthening the entity on social networks as well as launching the new website and its
moodle platform.
- Pronouncement of COLABIOCLI officially regarding permanent support for biochemical
professionals and equivalent title working in clinical analysis laboratories at times ofpandemic, weighing their leading role in diagnosing and supporting the management ofpatients with covid 19. (17.0 OTHER BUSINESS
1. COLABIOCLI president received an invitation to attend the 50th Anniversary of the Spanish
Society of Clinical Laboratory, AEFA – ESPAÑA
2. COLABIOCLI President was interviewed by the Bioengineering Magazine from Norway:“As How Latin America faces the Pandemic from the Clinical Laboratories. Role ofProfessionals”.
3. COLABIOCLI President was interviewed by EL MICROSCOPIO about the Strategy plan,
the activities and how the region was encountering the pandemic on COVID-19.
Álvaro Justiniano Grosz, COLABIOCLI President
Rosa Sierra-Amor, COLABIOCLI Regional Representative

92

EFLM
European Federation of Clinical Chemistry
and Laboratory Medicine

GENERAL MEETING
General issues
The EFLM President, Ana-Maria Simundic (AMS), greeted the audience and welcomed
the delegates to this remote General Meeting (GM) and explained that the remotemodality was actually forced by the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, 24 out 40 Full
Members’ national representatives were connected with Zoom at the opening of the GM
plus 2 Affiliate Members’ national representatives. One further Full Member’ s national
representative joined the meeting at h. 13.00. No matters arose from the minutes of thelast GM in Barcelona on May 19,2019. Minutes were thus otherwise approved.
The EFLM Secretary, Giuseppe Lippi (GL), presented some new membership’s
applications (reported below) and asked whether all the NRs would agree that public
voting will be carried out, using the formula “is there anybody against the proposal?”.
Full Members’ national representatives had nothing against, and this modality was hence
approved. The results of the public voting for the new for proposal were as follows: The Laboratory Medicine Association of Georgia to become EFLM Full Member. Nobody
had anything against, so that the name of the NS has been officially unanimously
accepted as EFLM Full Member The Academy of Clinical Science and Laboratory Medicine, Ireland to become EFLM
Affiliate Member. Nobody had anything against, so that the name of the NS has been
officially unanimously accepted as EFLM Affiliate Member The Serbian Society for Clinical Laboratory Medicine and Science to become EFLM
Affiliate Member. The EFLM GM approved the name of the NS with 13/24 votes in favor.
Serbia voted against, whilst 9 NS abstained from voting (in alphabetical order: Croatia,
Hungary, Israel, Italy, Kosovo, Lithuania, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland).
 The Order of Biochemists, Biologists and Chemists in the Romanian Health System tobecome an EFLM Affiliate Member. Nobody had anything against, so that the name of
the NS has been officially unanimously accepted as EFLM Affiliate Member
President’s report and new projects - A.M. Simundic, President
AMS presented her report and described the new and ongoing projects. Power point
presentation with this report can be viewed and downloaded from EFLM’s website.
AMS then presented the proposal to extend EFLM Academy membership to European
individuals from non-EFLM National Societies. Nobody had anything against. Former
EFLM President, Michael Neumaier, added that the collaboration with ESR is strategic
and there will be a joint plenary session with the ESR in EuroMedLab 2021. This will also
pave the way to further scientific collaborations, fundraising and grants application.
Treasurer’s report - K. Kohse, Treasurer
The EFLM Treasurer, Klaus Kohse (KK), gave a report on the following: (a) Audit 2019;(b) Balance sheet 2019; (c) Internal budget 2019; (d) Preliminary budget 2020. Audit of
the EFLM financial matters had been done in accordance with GAAP (Belgian Generally
Accepted Accountant principles) by the certified auditor in Bruxelles. The memberspresent at the GM unanimously (with 24/24 votes in favor) certified the EFLM accountand balance sheet 2019, which will now be published through the accountant. Approvalof the accounts by the General Meeting also constitutes the discharge for EB members
in charge during 2019. KK has also presented the Internal Budget 2019 and asked for its
formal approval. EFLM GM approved the Internal budget 2019 with 24/24 votes in favor.
The full presentation is available in the EFLM website.
Electronic voting for amendment of Art 17 of the EFLM bylaws - G. Lippi, EB
93

Secretary
GL, EFLM Secretary, proposed article’s amendment to introduce the possibility ofelectronic voting for the election of the EFLM Executive Board. Unfortunately, thequorum for this kind of decision (¾ of Full Members; i.e., 30 NSs) could not be reached,so that the voting was postponed to the next GM.
Reports from Committee Chairs(Power point presentations and below listed reports can be viewed and downloaded
from EFLM’s website)
Report from the Science Committee - E. Kilpatrick, C-S Chair.
Report from the Profession Committee - E. Homsak, C-P Chair.
Report from the Quality & Regulations Committee - F. Vanstapel, C-QR Chair.
Report from the Education & Training Committee - D. Pasalic, C-ET Chair.
Report from the Communication Committee - D. Rajdl, C-C Chair.
Report from IFCC President - K. Adeli, IFCC President
Khosrow Adeli (KA), IFCC President, has given a report about the past and ongoing
activities within the IFCC. Power point presentation with this report can be viewed
and downloaded from EFLM’s website. A brief discussion arose on the opportunity ofpromoting a laboratory day. Bernard Gouget also highlighted that the IFCC is planninga history book, which would include also the history of its Federations, thus also of the
EFLM.
Closing remarks (date and place of next General Meeting) - G. Lippi, EB Secretary
GL communicated that next GM will be held in 2021, during EuroMedLab, in Munich.
The exact dates and place for the next GM will be communicated by e-mail as soon as
defined.
Reports from Committee Chairs
Reports about the past and ongoing activities within the EFLM functional units were givenby the Science Committee (E. Kilpatrick, C-S Chair), Profession Committee (E. Homsak,
C-P Chair), Quality & Regulations Committee (F. Vanstapel, C-QR Chair), Education &Training Committee (D. Pasalic, C-ET Chair) and Communication Committee (D. Rajdl,
C-C Chair). Power point presentations with reports can be viewed and downloaded from
EFLM’s website.
Report from IFCC (K. Adeli, IFCC President)
Khosrow Adeli (AK) has given a report about the past and ongoing activities within the
IFCC. Power point presentation with this report can be viewed and downloaded from
EFLM’s website. No questions were raised.
EXECUTIVE BOARD
The leading activities of the EB during the year 2020 can be seen from the Minutes of the past
EB meeting.
COMMITTEES
Committee – Communication (C-C)
C-C focused mainly on three objectives:• implementation of new tools that improve effectivity of EFLM channels• building a new C-C team• introduction of “Infographics” summarizing results of EFLM publications
We have implemented MailerLite tool for management of mailing list and sending e-mails to oursubscribers. This tool provided us a more in-depth overview about our subscriber’s behavior
and preferences and highly improved visual attractivity of our e-mails. Furthermore, we havestarted using social media aggregator tool to simplify publication of our posts in social media. It
helped us to reach more than 3 thousand followers on Facebook and sustained growth in othersocial media channels. To help with needs of EFLM academy, we started using Vimeo service
94for hosting our video content. During the COVID-19 pandemic, newly adopted EFLM ZOOM
account helped to sustain communication within EFLM. Official registration of EFLM as a nonprofit organization opened us doors to use professional version of Canva for free. Canva is an
online tool for production of designs for web, social media, and other communication channels.
Almost complete renewal of C-C members led to increased motivation and productivity of ourteam. This enthusiasm was reflected in starting a new activity: production of simplified graphicalrepresentation of each EFLM publication. These “infographics” are used for propagation of
EFLM publication and this activity received a great attention of our subscribers and followers.
Committee – Education and Training (C-ET)
In 2020 many activities were postponed due to pandemic situation. All live postgraduate courses
were cancelled but the Working Group on Congresses and Postgraduate Education (WG-CPE)
started to prepare proposals for organization of on-line PGC courses on “Biostatistics”, “How towrite a good scientific paper” and also prepared a proposal for a new PGC “Leadership skills”.
WG expect that at least two courses will be realized in 2021. WG-CPE also prepared a survey
related to organization of the new speaker bureau, which was circulated with national societies(evaluation is in progress).
The WG on Laboratory Medicine Credit Points (WG-LMCP) planned to investigate once more
the expecting benefits of credits among EFLM member societies with preparation the new
survey which is ongoing. WG also preparing revision of accreditation SOP, standards andapplication forms.
According the well-established tasks WG on e-learning and Distance Education (WG-DE)
maintained and upgraded the e-learning platform. WG-DE also organized and released 4
webinars in 2020.
Committee – Profession (C-P)
The C-P activity in 2020 focused mainly in five objectives:
1. Progress with achieving recognition of Specialists in Laboratory Medicine
2. Growing the EFLM Register (EuSpLM)
3. Growing the EFLM Academy
4. EFLMLabX
5. TG: EFLM Syllabus Courses
In January, C-P prepared a CTF document as a joint statement on the proposed Common
Training Framework and sent it to EU-based national associations for their comments.
According to their comments, it was updated and sent to EB for approval in June 2020. In
November, the CTF document was sent to CCLM and published in December 2020. Today, we
have 21/27 EU Member States that can meet the equivalence of EFLM Standards. 15/21 EU
Member States that could meet equivalence could also meet the stricter requirements of the
proposed EFLM Common Training Framework under EU Directive 2013/55 / ​​EC (Recognition of
professional qualifications - with regulatory status of the profession). We are ready to present
the CTF document to the EU Commission in 2021 to continue the progress in achieving EuSpLM
recognition.
In support of this process, the WG-Register confirmed an increase (approximately three times
since January 2019) of applications for EuSpLM Register (3099 to November), which was mainly
achieved by block entry (90%) and additionally (10%) from individual applications. By the endof 2020, Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for group enrollment had been agreed with 18
national societies (8 new in 2020 Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Finland, Hungary, Ireland,Israel, Russia and Serbia).
The launch of the EFLM Academy in December 2019 proved to be a success. The number ofregistrants for the Academy increased steadily in 2020. Until November 2020, the total numberof members of the Academy is 4386 (with and without EuSpLM): through NS block enrollment(maximum share of registrants) (Total: 3940 (90%) members from 4386, without EuSpLM
95

certificate: 1102 (28%) members from total 3940; individual registration (Total: 446 (10%),without EuSpLM registration: 185 out of 446) The total number of members of the Academy
without EuSpLM, joined by both channels, is 1363. C-P (Chair) announced in the EFLM News
(July 2020) an important change for potential members of the Academy that it is now open toanyone (not just EFLM members) interested in laboratory medicine. There are a few differencesin the additional benefits of membership of the EFLM in comparison to non-EFLM Academy
membership: enrollment in the EFLM EuSpLM register, which will only be possible by applying
to the EFLM Academy and eligibility for EFLM grant applicants.
C-P has also prepared an updated version of the Guide to Academy and EuSpLM register:
Academy of the European Union for Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine and theEuropean Register of Laboratory Specialists: Guide to the Academy and the Register, version
4 - 2020 and published it in CCLM in November 2020. C-P updated the site accordingly withany changes.
The EFLMLabX practice exchange project has unfortunately been postponed due to the Corona
crisis. Significant support for the project was achieved through the introduction of an EFLM
Bursaries programme. We have prepared criteria for the bursaries for YS (EFLM countries),
we have received 2 applications (from Turkey and Ukraine), both have been accepted and therealization has been postponed to 2021 (due to Covid). For the announcement and for better
visibility, the Chair of C-P E. Homsak hold the EFLMLabX Webinar in March 2020.
In 2020, the TG: EFLM Syllabus Courses was transferred from C-ET to C-P under the newleadership of Gilbert Wieringa. TG prepared a plan for the courses, which would be implemented
in the next 2-3 years in cooperation with other committees (communication and science) andmembers of the working group (e-learning).
Committee – Quality and Regulations (C-QR)
The Working Group Accreditation and ISO/CEN standards published articles on validation andverification of methods and traceability requirements according to ISO15189 and is working on
different papers concerning when to repeat measurements and the detection of and the actions
to undertake when analytical processes are out of control. Risk management and process careare leading principles in the development of these documents.
All members of the different countries contribute actively to make these widely acceptable.
The Committee Chair is active in ISO-TC212 WG1, especially in relation with the new edition of
ISO15189, as we did with the former editions. This is pivotal standard for quality management
in medical laboratories.
The Committee Chair is active in the EA Health Care Working Group to contribute toharmonization of accreditation according to ISO15189 in the European countries. The WG is
focused on influencing the development and interpretation of ISO and CEN standards and inparticular the implementation of the new EU IVD Regulation.
The Committee Chair is also active in the EFLM Task Force: European Regulatory Affairs (TFERA). This Task Force follows up on the implementation phase of the new EU IVD regulation.
Committee – Science (C-S)
2020 is a year where science has come to the fore, but for reasons we would rather it did notneed to. The eight Working Groups (WGs) under this Committee (Biological Variation, Guidelines,
Harmonisation, Patient Focused Laboratory Medicine, Postanalytical Phase, Preanalytical
Phase and Test Evaluation), the three Task Groups (TGs) (Biological Variation Database, Cardiac
Markers and Performance Specifications Based on Outcome Studies) and the five Task andFinish Groups (TFG) (Practical Approach to Uncertainty, Urinalysis, Autoimmunity Testing,Laboratory Diagnostics of CKD, HIL interference) have been working as hard as is possible
considering the circumstances.
Many group members found they were having to devote all their time in assisting to combat
coronavirus and numerous planned face-to-face meetings necessarily had to be cancelled.
96Nonetheless, despite these challenges, groups made the transition to videoconferencing andhave remained productive. Highlights include the 9 papers produced this year by the Biological
Variation Working Group along with further development of the biological variation database.
The CKD questionnaire to EFLM members had a huge impact judged by the fact nearly 1,000
responses were returned and the work of the Test Evaluation group on in vitro Diagnostic
Regulation in the EU has spawned a whole new Task Force to address this topic for the wholeprofession.
It is hoped that 2021 may lead to some return of normality, not just for the populations insideand outside of Europe, but for their laboratory professional organisations as well. 2020 has
proven we cannot live and work in isolation and that co-operation between nations is needed
more than ever to tackle the largest and smallest problems facing us.
MEETINGS
In 2020, due to the COVID-19 no events have been held.
WEBINARSEFLM has organized four Webinars during 2020:• Communication Between Laboratory and Clinician: Key for Proper Medical Care
Speaker: Avi Peretz (IL) - Moderator: Dganit Itzhaky (IL) - Date: 19 May 2020
• Updates on COVID-19 biology and diagnostics
Speaker: Giuseppe Lippi (IT) - Moderator: Daniel Rajdl (CZ) - Date: 28 May 2020
• Urinalysis
Speaker: José A. T. Poloni (BR) - Moderator: Timo Kouri (FI) - Date: 30 June 2020
• The present and future of POCT
Speaker: Kleanthi Dima (GR) - Moderator: Petros Karkalousos (GR) - Date: 29 September
2020
PUBLICATIONS
1. Biological Variation of Cardiac Troponins in Health and Disease: A Systematic Review
and Meta-analysis
Diaz-Garzon J, Fernandez-Calle P , Sandberg S , Ozcurumez M, Bartlett WA, Coskun A,
Carobene A, Perich C , Simon M, Marques F, Boned b, Gonzalez-Lao E, Braga F, Aarsand
AK, EFLM Working Group on Biological Variation and Task Group for the Biological
Variation Database
Clin Chem Lab Med 2020 doi 10.1515/cclm-2020-1490
2. Biological variation of serum insulin: updated estimates from the European Biological
Variation Study (EuBIVAS) and meta-analysis
Carobene A, Gonzalez Lao E, Simon M, Locatelli M, Coskun A, DIaz-Garzon J, FernandezCalle P, Sandberg S Aarsand AK, on behalf of the EFLM Working Group on Biological
Variation
Clin Chem Lab Med 2020 doi 10.1515/cclm-2020-1490
3. A proposed common training framework for specialists in laboratory medicine under EU
directive 2013/55/EC (The recognition of professional qualifications)
Wieringa G, Queraltó J, Homšak E, Jassam N, Cavalier E, Svinarov D, Krleža JL, Christou
S, Pikner R, Rennebod Larsen T, Tomberg K, Linko-Parvinen A, Sapin V, Baum H, Kroupis
C, Bagoly Z, Costelloe S, Sciacovelli L, Stasulans J, Vitkus D, Meunier D, Solnica B,
Reguengo H, Mambet C, Kovac G, Krhin B, Ohlson M, Buhagiar G, Simundic A-M
Clin Chem Lab Med 2020 doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2020-1504
4. The Academy of the European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
and the European Register of Specialists in Laboratory Medicine: guide to the Academy
and the Register, version 4 – 2020
Wieringa G, Jassam N, Homsak E, Rako I, Racek J
97

Clin Chem Lab Med 2020 doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2020-1507
5. Harmonization of antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA) testing by reporting test
result specific likelihood ratios: position paper
Bossuyt X, Damoiseaux J, Rasmussen N, van Paassen P, Hellmich B, Baslund B, Blockmans
D, Vermeersch P, Lopez-Hoyos M, Vercammen M, Barret E, Hammar F, Leinfelder U,
Mahler M, Olschowka N, Roggenbuck D, Schlumberger W, Walker R, Rönnelid J, Cohen
Tervaert JW, Csernok E, Fierz W for the European Federation of Laboratory Medicine(EFLM) Task and Finish Group “Autoimmunity Testing,”, the European Autoimmune
Standardization Initiative (EASI) and the European Consensus Finding Study Group on
autoantibodies (ECFSG)
Clin Chem Lab Med 2020 doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2020-1178
6. Critical appraisal and meta-analysis of biological variation estimates for kidney related
analytes
Jonker N, Aslan B, Boned B, Marques-García F, Ricós C, Alvarez V, Bartlett W, Braga F,
Carobene A, Coskun A, Diaz-Garzón J, Fernández-Calle P, Gonzalez-Lao E, Minchinela
J, Perich C, Simón M, Sandberg S, Aarsand AK, on behalf of the European Federation ofClinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine Working Group on Biological Variation andTask Group for the Biological Variation Database
Clin Chem Lab Med 2020 doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2020-1168
7. European Biological Variation Study (EuBIVAS): within- and between-subject biologicalvariation estimates for serum biointact parathyroid hormone based on weekly samplings
from 91 healthy participants
Bottani M, Banfi G, Guerra E, Locatelli M, Aarsand AK, Coşkun A, Díaz-Garzón J,
Fernandez-Calle P, Sandberg S, Ceriotti F, González-Lao E, Simon M, Carobene A;
on behalf of the European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
Working Group on Biological Variation
Ann Transl Med 2020;8:855 doi.org/10.21037/atm-19-4498
8.
The CRESS checklist for reporting stability studies: on behalf of the European
Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFLM) Working Group for the
Preanalytical Phase (WG-PRE)
Cornes M, Simundic A-M, Cadamuro J, Costelloe SJ, Baird G, Kristensen GBB,
von Meyer A, Nybo M and Gómez Rioja R, on behalf of the Working Group for the
Preanalytical Phase (WG-PRE), of the European Federation of Clinical Chemistry andLaboratory Medicine (EFLM)
Clin Chem Lab Med 2020 doi.org/10.1515/ cclm-2020-0061
9. Biological variation of morning serum cortisol: Updated estimates from the European
biological variation study (EuBIVAS) and meta-analysis
Carobene A, Guerra E, Marqués-García F, Boned B, Locatelli M, Coşkun A, Díaz-Garzón
J, Fernandez-Calle P, Sandberg S, Aarsand AK on behalf of the European Federation ofClinical Chemistry, Laboratory Medicine Working Group on Biological Variation
Clin Chim Acta 2020 doi.org/10.1016/j.cca.2020.06.038
10. Thoughts and expectations of young professionals about the European Federation ofClinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFLM)
Bauçà JM, Imperiali CE, Robles J, Díaz-Garzón J, Vuljanic D, Begovic E, Tikhonov A, Alic
L, Nikler A and Simundic AM
Clin Chem Lab Med 2020 doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2020-0717
11. Exact time of venous blood sample collection – an unresolved issue, on behalf of theEuropean Federation for Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFLM) Working
Group for Preanalytical Phase (WG-PRE)von Meyer A, Lippi G, Simundic AM, Cadamuro J.
Clin Chem Lab Med 2020 doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2020-0273
12. How well do laboratories adhere to recommended guidelines for dyslipidaemia
98management in Europe? The CArdiac MARker Guideline Uptake in Europe (CAMARGUE)
study
De Wolf HA, Langloisa MR, Suvisaari J, Aakred KM, Baum H, Collinson P, Duff CJ, Gruson
D, Hammerer-Lercher A, Pulkki K, Stankovic K, Stavljenic-Rukavina A, Laitinen P, for the
EFLM Task Group on Cardiac Markers
Clin Chim Acta 2020 doi.org/10.1016/j.cca.2020.05.038
13. Critical appraisal and meta-analysis of biological variation studies on glycosylated
albumin glucose, and HbA1c
Ricós C, Fernández-Calle P, Gonzalez-Lao E, Simón M, Díaz-Garzón J, Boned B,
Marqués-García F, Minchinela J, Perich MC, Tejedor-Ganduxé X, Corte Z, Aarsand A,
Asland B, Carobene A, Coskun, Sandberg S.
Adv Lab Med 2020 doi.org/10.1515/almed-2020-0029
14. The European Biological Variation Study (EuBIVAS): weekly biological variation of cardiac
troponin I estimated by the use of two different high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I assays
Ceriotti F, Díaz-Garzón MJ, Fernández-Calle P, Maregnani A, Aarsand AK, Coskun A,
Jonker N, Sandberg S, Carobene A; European Federation of Clinical Chemistry andLaboratory Medicine (EFLM) Working Group on Biological Variation
Clin Chem Lab Med 2020 doi:10.1515/cclm-2019-1182
15. Analytical Performance Specifications for Lipoprotein(a), Apolipoprotein B-100, andApolipoprotein A-I Using the Biological Variation Model in the EuBIVAS Population
Clouet-Foraison N, Marcovina SM, Guerra E, Aarsand AK, Coşkun A, Díaz-Garzón J,
Fernandez-Calle P, Sandberg S, Ceriotti F, Carobene A, the European Federation ofClinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine Working Group on Biological Variation
Clinical Chemistry 2020 doi.org/10.1093/clinchem/hvaa054
16. European Biological Variation Study (EuBIVAS): within- and between-subject biologicalvariation estimates of β-isomerized C-terminal telopeptide of type I collagen (β-CTX),
N-terminal propeptide of type I collagen (PINP), osteocalcin, intact fibroblast gr
Cavalier E, Lukas P, Bottani M, Aarsand AK, Ceriotti F, Coşkun A, Díaz-Garzón J,
Fernàndez-Calle P, Guerra E, Locatelli M, Sandberg S, Carobene A & on behalf of theEuropean Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine Working Group on
Biological Variation and IOF-IFCC Committee on Bone Metabolism
Osteoporos Int 2020 doi.org/10.1007/s00198-020-05362-8
Giuseppe Lippi, EFLM Executive Board Secretary99

NAFCC
North American Federation of Clinical Chemistry andLaboratory Medicine

The NAFCC was formed by CSCC and AACC in 2014. Dr. Ann Gronowski served as the NAFCC
representative to the Executive Board 2018-2020.
Dr. Stephen Hill was selected to be the 2021-2023 NAFCC representative to the EB.
Planning is underway for the 2021 joint AACC/CSCC annual meetings to occur in Anaheim, CA,
September 19-23. The organizing committee is led by Dr. Nathalie LePage.
AACC held its Annual Scientific Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo in a fully virtual format December
14-17, 2020.
Ann M Gronowski, NAFCC Representative100

Full Member Societies

ARGENTINACONFEDERACIÓN UNIFICADA BIOQUÍMICA DE LAREPÚBLICA ARGENTINA (CUBRA)NATIONAL MEETINGS*All meetings were carried out via zoom
• Government Board CGP 21th June; 03th July; 27th July; 07th August; 12th & 21th August;04th & 24th September 2020 in Buenos Aires – Argentina.
• Instagram Live about Biochemistry and Pandemic (Cubra´s President Dr. Maria
Alejandra Arias participated) organized by Coordinadora de Colegios de Ley & ECUAFYB
11th May 2020 in Buenos Aires – Argentina.
• Webinar “Tecnologías moleculares para el diagnóstico clínico”,(Cubra´s Secretary
Dr. Carlos Navarro participated) organized by CADIME 29th July, 2020 in Buenos Aires– Argentina.
• Book Presentation by Dr. Rubén Torres “Mitos y Realidades de las Obras Sociales” 11th
August 2020 in Buenos Aires – Argentina.
• Meetings of the Permanent Technical Commission of the Unique Biochemical
Nomenclator of C.U.B.R.A. (CTP-NBU -CUBRA) 18th August 2020 in Buenos Aires –Argentina.
• Virtual Conference “El Laboratorio frente al SARS-CoV2” 04th November 2020 in Buenos
Aires – Argentina.
• Virtual Conference “Dengue” 11th November 2020 in Buenos Aires – Argentina.
• Workshop Seminar “Calidad en Laboratorios y Organizaciones de Salud” 26th
November 2020 in Buenos Aires – Argentina.
• LATAM Hospitals 2020 Virtual Conference in which were presented the committees thatare part of CUBRA 30th November 2020 in Buenos Aires – Argentina.
EDUCATION• Member of the Executive Committee of the Commission of National Biochemical
Certification (COCERBIN).
• Member of the “Advisory Commission for the Evaluation and Updating of the Unique
Biochemical Nomenclature”, within the Superintendence of Health Services.
REGIONAL RELATIONS
Colegio Bioquímico de Catamarca
Colegio Bioquímico del Chaco
Colegio Bioquímico de La Pampa
Colegio Bioquímico de La Rioja
Colegio Bioquímico de San Juan
Colegio Bioquímico de Santiago del EsteroColegio Bioquímico de TucumánColegio de Bioquímicos de la Provincia de Río Negro
Colegio de Bioquímicos de Corrientes

101Colegio de Bioquímicos de Neuquén
Colegio de Bioquímicos de Entre Ríos
Colegio de Bioquímicos de Formosa
Colegio de Bioquímicos de Jujuy
Sección 1ª de Bioquímica del Colegio Oficial de Farm. y Bioq. de Capital Federal
Colegio de Farm. y Bioquímicos de la Provincia de Santa Cruz
Bioquímicos del Interior A.C. Salta
Círculo Bioquímico de la Provincia de Misiones
Asociación Bioquímica de Salta
Asociación Bioquímica de Mendoza
Asociación Bioquímica del Este
Asociación Bioquímica de San Luis
Asociación Bioquímica de Villa Mercedes
Asociación Bioquímica de San RafaelFederación de Bioquímicos de la Provincia de Córdoba
Federación Bioquímica de la Provincia de Buenos Aires
Federación Bioquímica de la Provincia de Chubut
Federación Bioquímica de la Provincia de Santa Fe
ABA - Asociación Bioquímica Argentina
FBA - Fundación Bioquímica Argentina
COORDINADORA de Colegios de Bioquímicos de Ley de la República Argentina
CGP - Confederación General de Profesionales
IRAM - Instituto Argentino de Normalización y Certificación
ECUAFyB - Ente Coordinador de Unidades Académicas de Farmacia y BioquímicaUCOPS - Unión de Confederaciones de Profesionales de la Salud
Agrupación Bioquímica de Cuyo
FEBIPA - Federación Bioquímica Patagónica.
FOBINEA - Foro de Bioquímicos del Noreste Argentino.
FEBINOA - Federación Bioquímica del Noroeste Argentino
Ministerio de Salud de la Nación – Superintendencia de Servicios de Salud
Ministerio de Educación de la Nación
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONSIFCC International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine.
COLABIOCLI Confederación Latinoamericana de Bioquímica Clínica.
CLAPU Confederación Latinoamericana y del Caribe de Asociaciones de Profesionales Universitarios.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION• COLABIOCLI Cycle Talks “Rol de los profesionales bioquímicos, desafío antes, durante
y después de la pandemia” 26th August 2020.
• IFCC – WG-IANT Meeting (Cubra´s President Dr. Maria Alejandra Arias participated) 01th
September 2020.

102

AUSTRIA

AUSTRIAN SOCIETY OF LABORATORY MEDICINE AND
CLINICAL CHEMISTRY (ÖGLMKC)
NATIONAL MEETINGSName of the meeting

Date

Außerordentliche Jahrestagung der ÖGLMKC

Topic

7. - 9. Juli 2021

BELGIUMROYAL BELGIAN SOCIETY OF LABORATORY MEDICINE(RBSLM)NATIONAL MEETINGS
Joint annual meeting of the Royal Belgian Society ofLaboratory Medicine (RBSLM) in collaboration with the
Belgian Society for Gerontology and Geriatrics

Nov 20, 2020

Laboratory medicine in
the elderly

EDUCATION
Clinica Chimica Acta and Acta Clinica Belgica are official journals of the Royal Belgian Society of Laboratory Medicine (RBSLM)

CHINA (CN)PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA (PRC) - BEIJING
CHINESE SOCIETY OF LABORATORY MEDICINE (CSLM)
NATIONAL MEETINGSName of the meeting

Date

Topic

The 16th National Congress of La2020.9.24-26
boratory Medicine(2020 NCLM)

Laboratory Medicine

Biochemical inspection skills andsafety prevention and control online seminar

Biosafety prevention and control of clinical chemistry tests
and selection of test items under the COVID-19 epidemic.

Microbiological and MolecularDiagnostics

Biochemistry and Immunology(Immune direction)

2020.3.26

2020.5.13

2020.5.27

1. Advances in molecular epidemiology and clinical significance of methicinin-resistant staphylococcus aureus
2. Advances in molecular epidemiology and clinical diagnosis
principles of Clostridium difficile
1. Clinical significance of quantitative detection of five classic
hepatitis B serological markers and interpretation of the latest
guidelines for prevention and treatment of chronic hepatitis B(2019 edition)
2. Viral hepatitis: clinical case sharing and interpretation oflaboratory results1031. Communication between clinical and microbiology laboratory - discussion of common clinical problems
2. Treatment plan of department of severe infection
3. Nutritional treatment strategies for severe infections
Laboratory and Clinical2020.6.10

4. Drug resistance characteristics of carbapenem-resistantenterocularaceae bacteria
5. CRE infection in abdominal cavity after liver transplantationin children
6. Antibiotics selection and PK/PD in children with CRE infection

Scientific Research and Teaching2020.6.23

1. Exploration in clinical laboratory -- construction of cardiovascular laboratory diagnosis discipline
2. Personal research experience and experience

Blood and Body Fluids

2020.7.8

Biochemistry and Immunology(Biochemistry direction)

2020.7.22

1. Establishment and verification of automatic examination
rules for coagulation test results
2. Multicenter establishment and improvement of urine routine
intelligent audit rules
1. Diabetes-related laboratory tests
2. Clinical application of detecting HbA1c by HPLC
1. Abnormal lymphocyte in peripheral blood- a case report
2. Seemingly ordinary fever to be checked - importance oflaboratory report

Laboratory and Clinical2020.8.5

3. Fever to be checked - intermittent fever with anemia
4. Diagnosis of multiple myeloma: communication between
laboratory and clinical
5. Peripheral blood appearance of multiple myeloma
1. Strategy for medical laboratory patent applications

Scientific Research and Teaching

Biochemistry and Immunology(Immune direction)

Microbiological and MolecularDiagnostics

Blood and Body Fluids

2020.8.19

2. Understanding and thought on teaching for students of Medical Laboratory Technology
1. Clinical diagnostic pathways for autoimmune diseases

2020.9.9

2. One, two, three you don’t know about the direct immunofluorescence tests for antinuclear antibodies
1. Laboratory test for Aspergillus

2020.9.16

2020.9.29

2. How to combine clinical thinking with laboratory results for
IPA diagnosis in ICU
1. Requirements for quality control of routine hemagglutination items
2. Standardization of blood coagulation test

Scientific Research and Teaching104

2020.10.13

1. Biomarkers and new targets for diagnosis and treatment of
respiratory critically ill associated infections
2. Discussion on the clinical diagnosis and treatment of community-acquired virulent pneumonia

1. “Abnormal HbA1c” -- Starting from a case
Laboratory and Clinical2020.10.28

2. Understand test methodology and initiate cause search based on abnormal results
3. Return to clinical practice based on the laboratory test

Microbiological and MolecularDiagnostics

1. Mining the human microbiome marker
2020.11.12

2. Construction and application of intelligent POCT platform
based on biosensor and micro nano technology
1. Laboratory detection of M protein

Biochemistry and Immunology(Biochemistry direction)

2020.11.18

Blood and Body Fluids

2020.11.25

Biochemistry and Immunology(Immune direction)

2020.12.23

2. M protein screening experience in Peking Union Medical
College Hospital
1. Standard interpretation on “D-Dimer test”
2. Clinical application of thrombus elastography
1. Clinical thyroid function test interpretation
2. Influencing factors of thyroid hormone assay

EDUCATION
1. Cooperated with Mindray group for enterprise scholarship on several medical universities
and colleges.
2. Interpretation of expert consensus on nucleic acid detection of 2019 novel coronavirus.
Webcast, Laboratory Medicine Network.
3. Challenges and countermeasures of molecular diagnosis under the epidemic. Webcast,
National Health Commission Capacity Building and Continuing Education Center.
REGIONAL MEETINGSName of the meeting

Date

Society’s contribution for the meeting

Fujian Province laboratory
management experience and scene
case analysis meeting

December 26-27, 2020

Invited lecture, Session chairmanship

ISO15189 and medical laboratory
standardization construction meeting

November 12-14, 2020

Invited lecture, Session chairmanship

COVID-19 Related Lab Tests andPrevention

2020.06.12

Support, President and speakers.

The 16th Jilin Congress of Laboratory
Medicine

2020.11.14

Support and speakers

Seminar on New Technology andProgress in Laboratory Medicine

Jan 10-11,2020

Division of Clinical Immunology played the roleas organizer,Speaker

Training class for improving medicallaboratory quality management ability

2020-11-6

Organizer

Seminar on Laboratory Safety and
New Technology Application under the
Situation of COVID-19 Pandemic

Mar 21, 2020

Division of Clinical Immunology played the roleas organizer,Speaker

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
1. Professor Chengbin Wang joined Taskforce on COVID-19, International Federation of Clinical
Chemistry (IFCC) and participated in several guidelines concerning COVID-19, eg. “IFCCInterim Guidelines on Molecular Testing of SARS-CoV-2 Infection”, “IFCC Interim Guidelines
on Biochemical/Hematological Monitoring of COVID-19 Patients”, “IFCC Interim Guidelines
on Serological Testing of Antibodies against SARS-CoV-2”.
2. COVID-19 Clinical Diagnostics Webinar (8 Episodes in total), Mar-Apr 2020
The COVID-19 Webinar series was co-held by Chinese Medical Association, CSLM and105

supported by Mindray Medical Corp. Chinese experts in the field of clinical laboratory medicine
who gained hands-on experience in the diagnosis of COVID-19 shared their valuable knowledge
with global peers.The webinar series consisted of 3 global episodes (over 100 countries) and 5
regional webinars (Asia Pacific, India, CIS including Russia, Africa French-speaking Region and
Latin America). Total number of online viewers was over 20,000 (700 to 5700 audiences online
for each epidsode) among 110 countries worldwide.

Featured topics covered the Detection of virus by various routine diagnostics method to thebasic prevention guidance for lab technicians and has received global praise and recognition.
The webinar was highly appraised by experts worldwide and has been interpretated into 8
languages and also uploaded on Youtube.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
The 16th National Congress of Laboratory Medicine of Chinese Medical Association (2020
NCLM) sponsored by Chinese Medical Association and Laboratory Medicine Society of theChinese Medical Association will be held in Qingdao from September 24 to 26, 2020. This is a
grand meeting of China laboratory medicine in 2020, and it is held once a year.
This conference covered the latest research achievements and development trends in clinicallaboratory and laboratory management, and will conduct extensive and full exchange anddiscussion on the new situation and challenges faced by laboratory medicine. First-classexperts in China were invited to attend the meeting and give special reports. The conference
also held continuing education, paper exchange, young and middle-aged English speechcompetition, laboratory knowledge and skills competition, laboratory photography exhibition,clinical laboratory equipment new technology exchange and exhibition.

CROATIA

CROATIAN SOCIETY OF MEDICAL BIOCHEMISTRY AND
LABORATORY MEDICINENATIONAL MEETINGSName of the meeting

Date

Topic

31 CSMBLM Virtual
Symposium; Zagreb,
Croatia

October 17, 2020

Hemodialysis - clinical and diagnostic challenges

st

EDUCATION
Education Committee
Webinars of CSMBLM in 2020:
1. POCT - dilemmas and possible solutions (December 11, 2020)
2. Circulating tumor cells, opportunities and challenges (March 30, 2020)
106

3. Extended neonatal screening by tandem mass spectrometry (March 5, 2020)
4. Direct oral anticoagulants: from a laboratory point of view (February 6, 2020)
Committee for the scientific and professional development• Final version of the National Recommendations for the standardization of the sweat test
was completed. The document has been translated into English.
• National Recommendations for Laboratory Diagnosis of Systemic Autoimmune Diseases- Recommendations for the Determination of Antinuclear Antibodies (ANA) were sentfor publication in the journal Biochemia Medica in June 2020. A revision of the article isunderway.
• Article related to the processing of data from the post-analytical phase of laboratory workfrom CROQALM from 2019-2020.was published in the journal Biochemia Medica andanother article is in the process of being published.
• Recommendations for pleural, pericardial, and peritoneal fluid and recommendations forsynovial fluid were published and are available on the CSMBLM website.
• WG of CSMBLM and Croatian Chamber of Medical Biochemists for validation andverification of methods presented the results of a survey in the form of a scientific paper.
• The WG for Coagulation has prepared the final version of the article (under review).
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Croatian Centre for Quality Assessment in Laboratory Medicine (CROQALM), memberof EQALM (CSMBLM representative in EQALM: Jasna Lenicek Krleza, PhD, Specialist inLaboratory Medicine). In 2020. CROQALM performed three rounds of external quality control(March, June, September). In December 2020, annual report for each participant was sent toCroatian Chamber of Medical Biochemists and applications for EQA in 2021 was opened.
Biochemia Medica
CSMBLM continues with supporting of the journal. Journal BIOCHEMIA MEDICA continues
with activities for improving the quality and position of the journal among international scientificpublications. In 2020, the journal published 3 issues.
Information and Public Relations Committee (IPRC)
In this difficult, pandemic year, with lack of social events and impossibilities in contact,
Committee for Information and Public Relations, has been working entirely online. We organized
several meetings, welcomed some new members, updated the official web page and events.
Committee prepared and sent more than 50 newsletters to CSMBLM members together with
one hundred notifications on official page. Also, we presented official social media page of
the CSMBLM. For this year we have plans for online and live events organization regarding
promotion of the laboratory medicine profession.

CZECH REPUBLICCZECH SOCIETY OF CLINICAL BIOCHEMISTRY (CSKB)NATIONAL MEETINGSName of the meeting

Date

Topic

Clinical Biochemistry Symposium

23 – 27 OCT 2020
OnlineGeneral clinical biochemistry

41st Immunoanalytical Days -online

22 – 24 NOV 2020
OnlineImmuno asssays, biobanking, endocrinology,
downsydrom, tumpour markers

10750th Bilobab

Postponed for 2021

National meeting of lab technicians

RANK 2020 Rutinne Analysis of
Nucleic Acids

5 – 6 FEB 2020

Nucleic acides

EDUCATION
No change
Pre-graduate education: 5-6 years, Medicine: M.D. (medical doctors), Ing. (engineer inchemical sciences) or RNDr. (doctor in natural sciences) or Mgr. (master in natural sciences),
PharmDr. (pharmacy doctor)
Post-graduate education in Clinical Biochemistry: 5 years, compliant with EFLM standards
both M.D. and Ing, RNDr, Mgr., PharmDr. may obtain EuSpLM (European Specialist in Laboratory
Medicine), additional post-graduate education is needed for Haematology, Microbiology,
Immunology, Genetics and Pathology.
Continuous Professional Development: All categories may obtain certificates with CPD
credits, registered by central authorities, at congresses and seminars.
Patients´ education: Czech version of Lab Test online is available and being regularly updated
under supervision of the Czech Society of Clinical Biochemistry (https://www.labtestsonline.cz)
REGIONAL MEETINGSAt all meetings the Czech Society of Clinical Biochemistry guarantees scientific programme (Society’s contribution )Name of the meeting

Date

Topics

Quality Contro Day – Online

24 NOV 2020

Quality Control

Monoclonal Gamapathy Working Day
Online10 SEP 2020

Myeloma and MGUS diagnostics

Pilsen - region with the highest renal
Carnonoma incidence
Online webinar

28 MAY 2020

Oncology

Prognostics Value of Cardiac Markers
Online webinar

14 MAY 2020

Cardiology

Coagulation Factors Assessment
Online webinar

23 APR 2020

Coagulation

Free Lite Change Assessment
Online webinar

14 APR 2020

Heamthooncology

AIHA in Blood Bank Online webinar

24 MAR 2020

Heamathology and blood banking

Menhir of Professor Masopust

23 JAN 2020

Miscellaneus

10 local meetings cancelled due to
COVID 19

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONSInternational relations
9 members in IFCC Committees and Working Groups
8 members in 11 EFLM Committees and Working Groups
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Czech Society of Clinical Biochemistry (CSKB) supervises external quality control programme
SEKK (www.sekk.cz)
Official CSKB society journal is “Klinicka biochemie a metabolismus”, reviewed since 1971,
ISSN: 1210-7921, English article are acceptable. CSKB also co-edits FONS journal, ISSN 12117137.
108

National guidelines, opinions, instructions in 2020:
CSKB Guideline: Tumour Markers in Clinical Practice
CSKB Guideline: POCT Methods in General Practitioner Practice
CSKB Guideline: Bone Turnover Markers in Osteoporosis
CSKB Guideline: Diabetes Mellitus – Laboratory Diagnostics and Monitoring – update 2020

ESTONIAESTONIAN SOCIETY FOR LABORATORY MEDICINENATIONAL MEETINGSName of the meeting

XXI Summer School

Date

Topic

August 27-28, 2020,
Sangaste

New dyslipidemia guidelines by EFLM, biochemistry ofdyslipidemia; experiences with coronavirus in different
laboratories, analysis on sewage water as a tool ofcoronavirus epidemiology; distant learning during pandemia;
differential diagnostics of icterus; CDT and ethanol
metabolites; toxicological tests and expertise; gene therapy;
autoantibodies in melanoma; AIDS and lung disease

EDUCATION
Interdisciplinary seminar ”Laboratory tests – whether, to whom, why?”, December,11, 2020, virtual.
Due to COVID-situation in 2020, a lot of planned events were cancelled.
REGIONAL MEETINGSName of the meeting

Date

Society’s contribution for the meeting

XV Baltic Congress inLaboratory Medicine

ESLM participated in organization of the Congress, together
November, 6-7, 2020,
with Latvian (main organizer) and Lithuanian societies
Riga, virtual(BALM).

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONSESLM is the member of the following international organizations: IFCC, EFLM, BALM,
ESCMID, EUCAST
Marina Ivanova is the national representative in EUCAST
Helle Järv is a member of EUCAST subcommittee AFST
Kadri Klaos is the member of EUCAST subcommittee AMST
Marika Jürna-Ellam is the member of EUCAST subcommittee ECMM
Agnes Ivanov is a member in the IFCC Working Group “Laboratory Errors and Patient Safety”(WG-LEPS) and corresponding member in IFCC TF-POCT
Marge Kütt is a corresponding member in the EFLM Working Group „Patient Focused Laboratory
Medicine“ (WG-PFLM)
Galina Zemtsovskaja is a corresponding member in IFCC working groups: Committee on
Clinical Applications of Cardiac Biomarkers (C-CB); Committee on Bone metabolism (C-BM);
Harmonization of Interpretive Commenting EQA (WG-ICQA)ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Together with Estonian Society of Bioanalysts, ESLM published issue No 6 (2020) of the journal“Eesti Laborimeditsiin” (“Estonian Laboratory Medicine”) (in April).
ESLM participated actively in working out national diagnostic algorithms for SARS CoV-2.
Representatives of ESLM, Marge Kütt and Paul Naaber, participated in the advisory group of
the national Health Board during the pandemic.

109

There are 2 sections in ESLM:• Section of clinical microbiology• Section of laboratory physicians
There are working groups in the fields of• Laboratory terminology,• LOINC (Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes),• Laboratory Quality,• Kidney Biomarkers,• Cardiac Markers,• Laboratory Hematology,• Diagnostics of Urogenital Infections• Protein electrophoresis• Flow cytometry
The following guidelines were compiled:• Strategy for testing SARS CoV-2 by ESLM& ESI (2020)• Recommendations of ESLM for laboratory testing of SARS CoV-2
17 laboratories are sending out-patients’ laboratory test results electronically to the National
Digital Health Record.
New forms of visual display of dynamical changes are under development into National Digital
Health Record.

FINLANDFINNISH SOCIETY OF CLINICAL CHEMISTRY (SKKY)
NATIONAL MEETINGSName of the meeting

Date

Topic

Annual meeting (partly online)

23 Sep 2020

Annual mandatory meeting

Labquality Days

6.-7. Feb 2020

General clinical chemistry, participation in thescientific working group

EDUCATION
We have promoted international virtual meetings and congresses for the members.
We have published the Finnish society’s national journal “Kliinlab” (6 journals in 2020).
REGIONAL RELATIONS
We have kept contact to the members the society via e-mail and social media.
Board meetings were organized online since April 2020.
We have kept contact to other Nordic societies of clinical chemistry via online meetings. We
have planned future events and education. However, no specific plans have been made due touncertain time schedule.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
We have kept contact to international working groups using online meetings. We haveparticipated in international co-operation and promoted e.g. working groups and task forces forthe members of our society.

110

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Due to COVID-19 pandemia member meetings and educational events were cancelled.

FRANCESOCIÉTÉ FRANÇAISE DE BIOLOGIE CLINIQUE (SFBC)NATIONAL MEETINGSName of the meeting

Date

Topic

”Biomed J” (live meeting)March 5th - 7th, 2020 /ParisActualities in practical biology (focus onbiochemistry and molecular genetics)

4èmes Journées Francophones deBiologie Médicale

Virtual meeting(November, 2020)••

National meetings with SFBC
auspices (+ SFBC members in thescientific committee)

COVID-19 biology
IFCC session on AI and E-Health

EDUCATION• Educational Committee chaired by Dr C. Augereau and Dr F. Guerber :• Continuous professional development (DPC) and continuous medical education (CME)through SFBC scientific meeting sessions• Committee on Evaluation of Professional Practices (C-EPP): chaired by Dr I. AimoneGastin (Nancy)• National Agreement SFBC as Validating Society for “EPP”• Relations with the Federation of Medical Specialities (FSM)
REGIONAL MEETINGS and WEBINARS• Participation of SFBC members in International meetings• AACC National Meeting 2020, Virtual Event (Pr Philippe Gillery, Session Chair)• Journées de l’innovation en Biologie (December 8th - 11th, 2020)• IFCC Workshop: Navigate lab medicine’s and healthcare’s digital transformation
Chairs: B Gouget, D Gruson• Virtual Round table with 14 IFCC representatives: The Specialist in Lab Medicine at
the forefront of prevention and at the heart of public health. Chair B. Gouget• IFCC Webinars with the participation of AFCB, APFCB and EFLM members• The Covid and the Heart : Pronostic value of CV Biomarkers and e-management of
Cardiac injury• (July 8th, 2020) Chair: B Gouget, D Gruson (speaker)• Myths and truth about immunity against SARS CoV2/ Are biological tests the Key (July
28th, 2020)• Chair: B Gouget, D Gruson (speaker)• Artificial intelligence ad cardiac biomarkers trends (September 22th, 2020)• Chair: B.Gouget, D Gruson (speaker)
REGIONAL RELATIONSEFLM: Participation of SFBC members
Functional unit
WG: Accreditation and ISO/CEN
standards (WG-A/ISO)
TG: European Laboratory Day (TG-ELD)

Name
Guilaine
MichelBernard

Surname
BOURSIER
VAUBOURDOLLE
GOUGET

Position
Chair
Expert/Consultant
Chair
111

TFG: Urinalysis (TFG-U)
C: Profession Committee (C-P)
WG: Register
WG: LM Credit Points (WG-LMCP)
WG: Biological Variation (WG-BV)
WG: Preanalytical phase (WG-PRE)
WG: Guidelines (WG-G)

Audry
Jean-Philippe
SimoneHugo
MichelNihad
Jean-Pierre
Bérénice

MERENS
BROCHET
ZERAH
ROUX
PERES
MEKNACHE
BOUILLOUXSCHELL

MemberExpert/Consultant
Expert/Consultant
Member - Young Scientist
Member - Young Scientist
Corresponding Member
Corresponding Member
Member - Young Scientist

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS• SFBC Committee on International Relations:- Prof.P. Gillery- Prof. J. Goudable- Dr B. Gouget- Pr S. Lehmann• SFBC representatives:- IFCC: Prof. P. Gillery- EFLM: Prof. J. Goudable- WASPaLM: Prof. P. Gillery, Dr G. Boursier• Participation in the International Advisory Board of IFCC/EFLM meetings:- IFCC WorldLab Seoul 2022 (Pr P. Gillery, ISC Member)- Workshop “Barriers to global standardization of clinical laboratory testing: reference materials and regulations” (Pr P. Gillery, Member Organizing Committee), virtual meeting,
December 2021
- EFLM/IFCC EuroMedLab Munich 2021 (Pr P. Gillery, Chair of the Scientific ProgrammeCommittee, Joëlle Goudable, ISAB)- WorldLab - EuroMedLab Roma 2023 (Pr P. Gillery, Member of the Scientific ProgrammeCommittee)- IFCC Council, and chair Arabic Federation /FIFBCML session (Dr B. Gouget)• SFBC: founding member of the FIFBCML : Fédération Internationale Francophone de Biologie
Clinique et de Médecine de Laboratoire.
• Participation of SFBC members at National meetings of IFCC full member societies.
Participation of SFBC members in IFCC Committees and Working Groups Scientific Division (SD)
Executive Committee
P. Gillery, Chair, 2020-2022
Committees– Molecular Diagnostic (C-MD)
K. Peoc’h, Corresp. Member– Traceability in Laboratory Medicine (C-TLM)
A. Vassault, Corresp. Member– Standardization of Thyroid Function Tests (C-STFT)
V. Raverot, Member– Bone markers (C-BM)
J.P. Cristol, Corresp. Member
Working groups– Standardization of Procalcitonin assays (WG-PCT)
V. Delatour, Chair, 2018-2020
			
A. Boeuf, Member			
H. Briand, Member			
A.M. Dupuy, Member			
P. Hausfater, Member– Standardization of Carbohydrate-Deficient Transferrin(WG-CDT)
F. Schellenberg, Member– CSF Proteins (WG-CSF)
S. Lehmann, Member
			V. Delatour, Member– Commutability in Metrological Traceabiliy (WG-CMT)
V. Delatour, Member112

– Apolipoproteins by Mass Spectrometry (WG-Apo MS)
V. Delatour, Member– Standardisation of Albumin Assay in Urine (WG-SAU)
L. Pieroni, Corresp. Member– Standardisation of Pregnancy-Associated Plasma 		Protein (WG-PAPPA)
R. Garnotel, Corresp. Member– Standardization of Troponin I (WG-TNI)
G. Lefèvre, Corresp. Member
M. Arock, Corresp Member– Standardisation of Hemoglobin A2 (WG-HbA2)
 Education and Management Division (EMD)
Committees– Committee on Point of Care Testing (C-POCT)– Committee on Proficiency testing (C-PT)– Committee on Analytical Quality (C-AQ)– Committee on Education in the Use of Biomarkers of
		 Diabetes (C-EUBD)– Committee on Chronic Kidney Disease
Working Group– Flow Cytometry (WG-FC)

M. Vaubourdolle, Member
A. Perret-Liaudet, Member
A. Vassault, Corresp. Member
P. Gillery, Corresp. Member
J.P. Cristol, Corresp. Member
C. Lambert, Chair, 2019-2021

 Emerging Technology Division (ETD)

–
		
–
–

Committee on Mobile Health and Bioengineeringin Laboratory Medicine (C-MHBLM)
Committee on Omics Translation (C-OT)
Emerging technologies in Pediatric Laboratory
Medicine (C-ETPLM)

 Task Forces (TF)

Task Force on History (TF-H)– Task Force for Young Scientists (TF-YS)

 Nominations Committee

B. Gouget, Chair, 2018-2020
M. De Tayrac, Member
A. Mailloux, Corresp. Member

B. Gouget, Co-Chair, 2019-2021
M. Lenski, Corresp. Member
B. Gouget, Past-Chair, 2018-2020

ADDITIONAL INFORMATIONSFBC Board 2020
• Executive Board:• President 					Pr Vincent SAPIN• Vice-President				Pr Jean-Louis BEAUDEUX• Past-President				Pr Marc DELPECH• General Secretary				Dr Véronique ANNAIX• Treasurer 					Dr Philippe CHATRON• Scientific Committee:				Dr Delphine COLLIN-CHAVAGNAC							Dr Katell PEOC’H• Editors in Chief ABC: 				Dr Laurence PIERONI• Educational Committee: 			
Dr Christine AUGEREAU-VACHER							Dr Fabrice GUERBER							Dr Isabelle AIMONE-GASTIN• International Relations:			Pr Philippe GILLERY							Pr Joëlle GOUDABLE							Dr Bernard GOUGET							Pr Sylvain LEHMANN• National Relations: 				Dr Marie-Françoise GAUDEAU-TOUSSAINT							Dr Carole POUPON							Dr Laurence MOULY• Young Scientist: 				Dr Guilaine BOURSIER113

HUNGARYHUNGARIAN SOCIETY OF LABORATORY MEDICINE (MLDT)NATIONAL MEETINGSName of the meeting

Date

Topic

Laboratory diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2
infectionfrom 15 October 2020
online presentations
were available for fourweeks

Molecular biological diagnosis of COVID-19,
serological tests, clinical picture and cases

QualiCont Forum 2020

7 February 2020

External quality control, cardiac biomarkers,
laboratory diagnostics of diseases of the thyroid
gland, tumor markers of breast cancer

REGIONAL RELATIONSRegionally, Hungarian professionals in laboratory medicine have good relations with similar
experts in Croatia, Austria and Romania. Some colleagues working in Hungarian labs originallycome from Romania.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONSIFCC Communications and Publications Division, Vice-Chair: Prof. Janos Kappelmayer
Editor of eJIFCC: Prof. Janos Kappelmayer
IFCC Scientific Division, Committee on Bone Metabolism, Member: Dr. Harjit Pal Bhattoa
EFLM Working Group: Postanalytical Phase, Expert/Consultant: Dr. Eva Ajzner
EFLM Working Group: Congresses and Postgraduate Education, Member: Dr. Zsuzsa Bagoly
EFLM Working Group: Promotion & Publications, Chair: Dr. Harjit Pal Bhattoa
EFLM EuroLabNews, Editor: Dr. Harjit Pal Bhattoa

INDIA

ASSOCIATION OF CLINICAL BIOCHEMISTS OF INDIA (ACBI)NATIONAL MEETINGSName of the meeting

Date

Topic

Due to the Covid Pandemic, our scheduled National meetin December 2020 was shifted to December 2021

EDUCATION
Due to complete lockdown enforced in India, no physical meeting was organized in 2020.
The association then decided to start a series of webinars to keep our members engaged andinformed. Eminent scientists from India and abroad were invited to participate in the webinars.
The following webinars were organized:

114

115

REGIONAL RELATIONS
Many members of ACBI are actively participating in the affairs of APFCB. Dr Praveen Sharma(Jodhpur), Dr. Pradeep Dabla, Dr Purvi Purohit, Dr Prasenjit Mitra as chairpersons/members ofvarious divisions & sub-committees.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATIONThe 47th Annual National Conference of the association will be held at Science City, Kolkata
from 8 – 11th. December 2021. The organizing secretary is Dr Subir Kumar Das.
The following were elected as office bearers of ACBI for the year 2021:
PRESIDENT:
Dr. L. M. Srivastava
Professor; Consultant-Advisor
116

Department of Biochemistry and Lab Medicine
Sir Ganga Ram Kolmet Hospital
New Delhi - 110005
VICE PRESIDENT (I) & ORGANIZING SECRETARY, ACBICON 2021
Dr. Subir Kumar Das,
Professor & Head
Department of Biochemistry
College of Medicine & JNM Hospital, WBUHS
Kalyani, Nadia 741235, West Bengal
VICE PRESIDENT (II)Dr. Seema Bhargav
Chairperson and Senior Consultant
Department of Biochemistry & Professor
GRIPMER, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital
New Delhi
ADVISOR
Prof. K.P. Sinha
Director, Biochem Lab
East Boring Canal Road
Patna-800001
SECRETARY:
Dr. Rajiv Ranjan Sinha
Professor & Head
Department of Biochemistry
Government Medical College
Bettiah. W. Champaran
TREASURER:
Dr Krishna Ranjan Prasad
Professor, Dept.of Biochemistry, Katihar Medical College
A-12 Sector D, Kankerbagh Colony
Patna - 800 020, Bihar

JOINT SECRETARY:
1. Dr. Ram Binay Sinha
Professor & Head
Department of Biochemistry
Patna Medical College
Patna – 800 004
2. Dr. Prasenjit Mitra
Department of Biochemistry
AIIMS, Basni phase -2
Jodhpur
ZONAL COUNCIL MEMBERS
North Zone:
Dr. Dharamveer Yadav
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Biochemistry
S.M.S. Medical College
Jaipur – 302 004
South Zone:
Dr. Kanan Vaidyanathan
Professor & Head
Department of Biochemistry
Pushpagiri Institute of Medical Sciences &R.C.
TIRUVALLA - 689 101, Kerala
West Zone :Dr. Sadanand Naik
Head ept. Of Biochemistry & Endocrinology
K.E.M. Hospital
Raasta Peth
PUNE - 411 011
Central Zone:
Dr. Shivani Pandey
Assistant Professor
Department of BiochemistryKing George’s Medical University
Lucknow – 226003
Uttar Pradesh

117

JAPAN

JAPAN SOCIETY OF CLINICAL CHEMISTRY (JSCC)
NATIONAL MEETINGSName of the meeting

Date

Topic
2 Special Lectures:
1) Clinical Chemistry -Past / Present / Future- (Tozuka M)2) Qualitative changes in serum and cerebrospinal fluid HDL (Miida T)
3 Educational Lectures:
1) Evaluation of ”muscle quality” in the field of sports and healthscience2) Molecular mechanism of taste substance acceptance that
determines taste
3) Construction of regenerative medicine and drug discovery modelusing cell sheet

The 60th Annual Meetingof the Japan Society ofClinical Chemistry

9 Symposia:
2020/10/30-11/1 1) Current status and issues of immunotoxicity in drug research anddevelopment
2) Case report/Discussion: Pitfall in laboratory test 2020
3) Ingenuity of accuracy assurance in clinical chemistry laboratories:
How to guarantee the accuracy and add value of test results before
and after analysis4) Utilization of blood drug concentration measurement results
required by Specified Drug Treatment Management Fee 1 (TDM)
5) Immunoglobulin / M protein test and clinical practice6) Screening for primary dyslipidemia7) GA Symposium -Together with the project report8) How to ensure the quality of analytical clinical tests again
9) Clinical chemistry pioneered by mass spectrometry -Current status
and possibilities

EDUCATION
In all annual meeting of JSCC and regional meetings in Japan, educational lectures on various
clinical chemistry related subjects, such as standardization, analytical methods, and laboratory
related trouble shootings were performed by the specialists of clinical chemistry. In addition,clinical chemistry related companies held various types of symposiums and educational
meetings in all over Japan all the year round.
Clinical Chemistry Academy and Educational Lecture for Certified Clinical Chemistry and
Immunochemistry Quality Assurance Medical Technologists and Professions were held in Tokyo
on Nov 1, 2020.
REGIONAL MEETINGSName of the meeting

118

Date

Society’s contribution for the meeting

Hokkaido branch : The 30th branch regular metting

Sep 12, 2020

Each branch supervises the meeting ofeach region

Tohoku branch : The 31st branch general meeting

Nov 22, 2020

Each branch supervises the meeting ofeach region

Kanto branch : The 28th branch general meeting

Nov 1, 2020

Each branch supervises the meeting ofeach region

Tokai & Hokuriku branch : The 340th branch regularmeeting

Feb 23, 2020

Each branch supervises the meeting ofeach region

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONSSD Committees:• Reference Intervals and Decision Limits (C-RIDL): Donchon. Kang, Member• Reference Standardization of Thyroid Function Tests (C-STFT): Akira Hishinuma, Member• Nomenclature, Properties and Units (C-NPU) in collaboration with IUPAC: Koh Furuta,
Member
SD Working Groups:• Standardization of Albumin Assay in Urine (WG-SAU): Yoshihisa Itoh, Member• Immunosuppressive Drugs (WG-ID): S Masuda, Member• Pancreatic Enzymes (WG-PE): Shigeru Ueda, Member• Fecal Immunochemical Testing (WG-FIT): S Takehara, Y Doi, M Fujimura, T Fukuda, H
Hayashi, T Ichiyanagi, T Kosaka, Y Masuda
Education Management Division (EMD) Committees:• Education in the Use of Biomarkers in Diabetes (C-EUBD): Asako Sato, Member
Emerging Technologies Division (ETD) Committees:• Committee on Mobile Health and Bioengineering in Laboratory Medicine (C-MHBLM):
Kazuhiko Kotani, Member
International Journal Editor
Associate Editors for Annals of Clinical Biochemistry: Kazuhiko Kotani
Editorial Board of Clini Chimica Acta:
Nobuo Okumura, Editorial Board
Masato Maekawa, Editorial Board
Takashi Miida, Editorial Board
Minoru Tozuka, Editorial Board
Katsuyuki Nakajima, Editorial Board
Akihiro Inazu, Editorial Board
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
About 1,850 members including MD and PhD belong to JSCC and 9 blocks were divided aseach centre of JSCC.
The annual meeting is held once a year and more than 300 papers are discussed in the meetingand the regional meetings were held once a year in each region and interesting symposiums
and special lectures are planned by an annual president of the meeting.

LATVIALATVIAN SOCIETY OF LABORATORY MEDICINE (LLSB)REGIONAL MEETINGSName of the meeting

Date

Society’s contribution for the meeting

BALM2020 (15th Baltic Congress ofLaboratory Medicine)

6.-07.11.2020.

Covid-19, paediatric, infectious diseases,
women’s and men’s diseases, new technologies

119LEBANON

LEBANESE SCIETY OF CLINICAL BIOLOGYNATIONAL MEETINGS
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health (MOPH)
appointed a committee of 13 members from the Syndicate of Clinical Pathologists in Lebanon(SDBL) to monitor the performance of laboratories specialized in SARS-CoV-2 testing. The
committee supervised the setting up of 90 Coronavirus testing laboratories till now through:• setting standards for the establishment of these laboratories.
• setting standards to ensure the safety, quality and technique of these laboratories.
Moreover, monitoring how they eventually conform to these standards and how they reporttheir results.
• inspecting the 90 laboratories through on-site visits by members of the SDBL to assure
adherence to the above standards.
• establishing an internet page on the syndicate website “www.sdblb.org” containing all
prevention measures, guidelines, tutorials as well links to relevant scientific website. The
SDBL page also includes the check-list and standards required to open a coronavirus
testing laboratory as well as the up-to-date guidelines and decisions published by the
MOPH during the pandemic.
• analyzing the performance of kits and their distribution.
• following up on the results declared by the laboratories for epidemiological surveillance
purposes.
• organizing webinars to guide and clarify all aspects of the pandemic.
Besides our focus on the pandemic, the SDBL also concentrated on other issues such as:• organizing webinars regarding chronic diseases and cancer.
• preparing for the congress of the Arab Federation of Clinical Biology (AFCB) which isscheduled to be held between the 27th and 29th of May 2021.
• organizing meetings, training sessions and a whatsapp group for the young and newmembers of the syndicate so that they may get introduced to each other which will facilitate
future communication, research and publications.
• helping new members in their search for jobs and to negotiate fair salaries and job
descriptions. A representative of the new members is actually the host and administratorof the SDBL site.
• establishing a plan to monitor the suppliers that introduce kits in the Lebanese market
price from conservation and distribution aspects by asking the MOPH to inspect if they arefollowing good practices.
• forming a list of newly introduced tests with their prices in conjunction with the MOPH.
• working on updating outdated legislation with the MOPH.

LITHUANIALITHUANIAN SOCIETY OF LABORATORY MEDICINENATIONAL MEETINGS

120

Name of the meeting

Date

Topic

National Conference (on-line)

29-10-2020

What clinicians should know, and what laboratories
should perform (dedicated to World Thrombosis Day)

12th Annual Conference of the LithuanianSociety of Laboratory Medicine (on-line)

02-12-2020

Laboratory diagnostics of 2020: possibilities andclinical interpretations

REGIONAL MEETINGSName of the meeting

Date

Society’s contribution for the meeting

XV Baltic Congress of Laboratory
Medicine (on-line)

6 – 7 November 2020

Co-organizer of the Congress

REGIONAL RELATIONS
Lithuanian Society of Laboratory Medicine (LLMD) is member of Baltic Association of Laboratory
Medicine (BALM). Other 2 members of BALM are: Latvian Society of Laboratory Specialists andEstonian Society of Laboratory Medicine. The main task of the Association – organization of
Baltic Congresses of Laboratory Medicine held every second year in one of the Baltic Countries.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONSLLMD is the member of IFCC, EFLM and Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI);
partner of The Global World Thrombosis Day Movement.

MALAYSIA

MALAYSIAN ASSOCIATION OF CLINICAL BIOCHEMISTS(MACB)NATIONAL MEETINGSName of the meeting

Date

Topic

30th MACB Conference 2020

26 – 28 November 2020

”Innovative Solutions – The Way Forward inLaboratory Medicine”

MACB Annual General Meeting

28 November 2020

30th MACB AGM – appoitment of the new council
members and auditors for the term 2020-2022

EDUCATION
Webinars
1. “Laboratory Role in the Battle Against Covid-19” – 26th August 2020
This is the first live webinar organised by the MACB. The webinar focused on experiencesharing of Malaysian laboratories involved in the testing of Covid-19 patients during
the current Covid-19 pandemic. Lectures on the following topics : Molecular Testing of
Covid-19: Sungai Buloh Experience, Serology Testing for Covid-19 and The Importanceof Supporting Tests in the Management of Covid-19 Patients were delivered by 4 local
speakers. This webinar was supported by Roche Diagnostics (M) Sdn. Bhd.
2. “The Power of Laboratory Medicine to Achieve Measurable Better Healthcare” - 4th
September 2020.
This webinar received the auspices of the APFCB and was supported by Abbott Diagnostics.
The objective of the webinar was to create awareness for the UNIVANTS of Healthcare
Excellence Award and to promote collaboration across disciplines. Lectures in this webinar
were delivered by 3 speakers. The first lecture on the topic of Unifying for Something
Greater: The Univants of Healthcare Excellence Program was delivered by Tricia Ravalico.
The second lecture was delivered by Dr. Eleanor Dow on the topic of Intelligent Liver
Function Testing (ILFT): A Cost-Effective Way to Increase Early Diagnosis of Liver Disease
and the third lecture was delivered by Dr. Marthias Orth on the topic of Avoiding Insufficient
Therapies and Overdosing with Co-Reporting e-GFRs for Personalized Drug Therapy and
Improved Outcomes.
3. “Myocardial Injury in the Era of High Sensitivity Troponin” - 9th September 2020.
The webinar discussed the latest updates in the guidelines related to high sensitivity
troponins and their clinical utility within Asia Pacific. The webinar was delivered by Dr.
121

Pearline Teo of Siemens Healthineers, Singapore and was supported by Siemens
Healthineers.
4. “Blood Collection Tube Verification and Validation webinar series”
This webinar series was conducted in 3-parts and was supported by BD.
Part 1: “The Science Behind Blood Collection Tube and Tube Validation” was held on 18th
September 2020 and was delivered by Dr. Puneeta Bhatia.
Part 2: “Tube Verification Protocol Design” was held on 16th October 2020 and wasdelivered by Mr Brian Smith.
Part 3 : “Blood Collection Tube Verification: What Your Text Book Do Not Teach You” washeld on 4th December 2020 and was delivered by Kala Devi Nadarajan.
The webinars discussed the regulatory guidelines for blood collection tube selection andvalidation, how to design a validation protocol and the variables that should be consideredduring verification to ensure adequate performance in clinical use.
REGIONAL RELATIONS
1. The MACB is a member of the APFCB.
2. In 2020 the MACB organised one webinar under the auspices of the APFCB
3. APFCB Travelling Lecture, Helen Martin presented a lecture at the 30th MACB Conference2020 which was held virtually.
4. The MACB established a local organising committee for the APFCB Congress 2026.
5. MACB activities for 2020 were reported in issues 1 and 2 of the APFCB News.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
1. IFCC-MACB Advanced Molecular Biology Workshop
This advanced workshop was organized by the Malaysian Association of Clinical
Biochemists (MACB) in collaboration with the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry
and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC). It was supported by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia(UKM). It was held on 29 – 31 January 2020 at the UKM, Jalan Raja Muda Abdul Aziz,
Kuala Lumpur. The workshop was carried out in 3 parts over the 3 days.
2. Enrolment to the EFLM Academy
MACB has enrolled some of its members to the European Federation of Laboratory
Medicine (EFLM) Academy for the year 2021.

MYANMAR

MYANMAR MEDICAL TECHNOLOGIST ASSOCIATION (MMTA)
NATIONAL MEETINGSName of the meeting

Date

Topic

MMTA Meeting

23 . February 2020

Covid-19 Crisis

MMTA Meeting

12 . April 2020

To provide volunteer service for the
Laboratories to support Covid-19 Treatment

Name of the meeting

Date

Society’s contribution for the meeting

Health Regional Meeting

17. August 2020

Detection and prevention of Covid-19

REGIONAL MEETINGS

Yangon Region

122

in Yangon Region

NORWAYNORWEGIAN SOCIETY OF MEDICAL BIOCHEMISTRY (NSMB)NATIONAL MEETINGS
Cancelled
EDUCATION
National educational video meetings once a week all year.
REGIONAL MEETINGS
Cancelled

PARAGUAY

ASOCIACIÓN DE BIOQUÍMICOS DEL PARAGUAY (ABP)
NATIONAL MEETINGSName of the meeting

Date

Topic

Meetings at the Ministry of Public Health andSocial Welfare with representatives of the General
Directorate for the Control of Health Professionals,
Establishments and Technology, the Scientific
Societies of Clinical Chemistry, Hematology,
Microbiology and the Association of Biochemists of
Paraguay

February 2020

Regulation of the certification
and recertification of biochemical
specialists.

Meeting at the Public Health Commission of the
Honorable Chamber of Deputies with representatives
10-08- 2020of said commission and the Association of Biochemistsof Paraguay

Draft Law that regulates the Professionof Biologist.

Meeting at the Ministry of Public Health and Social
Welfare with Vice ministers and representatives of the
Biochemical guild

08-14-2020

Draft Law that regulates the Professionof Biologist. Professions Catalog

Virtual meeting with representatives of the Ministryof Health, the National Agency for the Evaluation
and Accreditation of Higher Education, the National
Council of Higher Education, the Faculty of Chemical
Sciences, the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences
and the Association of Biochemists of Paraguay

25-08-2020

Bill that regulates the Profession of the
Biologist.

Participation in Public Hearing called by the Scienceand Technology Commission of the Honorable
Chamber of Deputies

03-09-2020

Bill that regulates the Profession of
the Biologist with the approval of the
Senate of the Nation.

12-14-2020

In the framework of the celebration of
the Biochemist’s Day, the draft decree
was presented which will regulate Law
No. 5986/17 on the Biochemist.

Meeting at the Ministry of Public Health and Social
Welfare with representatives of the General Directorof Legal Advice of the Ministry of Public Health,Social Welfare and the Association of Biochemists of
Paraguay

EDUCATION• First Pre-Congress Webinar of the IX NATIONAL CONGRESS OF CLINICAL
BIOCHEMISTRY and I PARAGUAYAN CONGRESS OF BIOCHEMISTRY AND
LABORATORY SCIENCES within the framework of the ALAM 2021 Congress (Via Zoom),on 09-17-2020, Speakers: Dr. Cristóbal Avivar (Spain ), Dr. Hernán Fares Taie (Argentina),
Dr. Luis García de Guadiana (Spain). Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Montserrat Blanes.
123• Third Pre-Congress Webinar - Endocrinology of the IX NATIONAL CONGRESS OF
CLINICAL BIOCHEMISTRY and I PARAGUAYAN CONGRESS OF BIOCHEMISTRYAND LABORATORY SCIENCES within the framework of the ALAM Congress 2021 (ViaZoom), on: 10-22-2020, Speakers: Dra. Fanny Corrales Ríos (Paraguay), Dr. Sandra
Filippini (Argentina), Dr. María Eugenia Bianchi (Argentina, Dr. Cecilia Fenili (Argentina).
Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Montserrat Blanes• Call for COLABIOCLI / ABP Scholarships 2020: Scholarship awarded to Biochemist Fátima
Rodríguez Acosta.
• Call for Virtual Diploma Scholarships for ANALYTICAL QUALITY CONTROL IN CLINICALLABORATORY, 03-13-2020: Scholarship awarded to Biochemist Candy Santacruz.
• Call for Virtual Diploma Scholarships for “CLINICAL BACTERIOLOGY ANDSUSCEPTIBILITY TESTS ANTIMICROBIANA”03-26-2020: Scholarship awarded to
Biochemist Rolando Cáceres.
• Call for Scholarships “INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMA IN QUALITY MANAGEMENTACCORDING TO ISO 15189”, 08-06-2020.
• Call for Scholarships “INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMA OF DIAGNOSTIC HEMATOLOGY”,
08-17-2020.
• Call for Scholarships “VIRTUAL DIPLOMA OF CLINICAL PATHOLOGY BY CLINICALLABORATORY (3rd.Generation)”, 08-19-2020.
• Call for Scholarships “VIRTUAL DIPLOMA IN SELECT TOPICS OF DIAGNOSTICHEMATOLOGY BY LABORATORY (ADVANCED LEVEL), 10-15-2020• Participation in the XIII Uruguayan Congress of Clinical Biochemistry, October 15, 16 and17/2020, President of ABP Dr. Mercedes Álvarez.
• Call for Scholarships “ONLINE COURSE OF MYCOSIS IN URINARY TRACT”, 12-5-2020• Call for Scholarships “THEORETICAL COURSE OF MEDICAL MYCOLOGY”, 01-04-2021,
scholarship awarded to Bioq. Carolina Duré.
REGIONAL MEETINGSName of the meeting

Date

Society’s contribution for the meeting

Virtual meeting with presidents of National
Entities affiliated to COLABIOCLI (Via Zoom).

06-12-2020

Real time interaction of the presidents andmembers of the affiliated entities was achieved.

Virtual meeting with the presidents of National
Entities affiliated to COLABIOCLI (Via Zoom).

12-16-2020

Stimulate youth leadership through scholarships
and virtual courses.

• Organization of the IX National Congress of Clinical Biochemistry and 1st of Biochemistry in Clinical Laboratory
Sciences within the framework of the XXV Latin American Congress of Microbiology ALAM to be held from
August 27 to 30, 2021, Organizing Committee: President - Dr. José Pereira, Vice President - Dra. Raquel
Caceres, Finance Secretary Dr. Mercedes Álvarez, President of the IX National Congress of Biochemistry - Prof.
Dr.Montserrat Blanes.
• Participation in the 2020 Conversation Cycle of the Latin American Confederation of Clinical Biochemistry(COLABIOCLI) - Quality management in the clinical laboratory, its incorporation into the university curriculum.
Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Juana Ortellado de Canese.
• Participation in the Accreditation Management Working Group - Bioq. Hasmi Aramí Cristaldo Rodríguez and Bioq.
Edgar Rodrigo Ayala Torres.
• Participation in the Working Group on Bioethics - Dr. Marta Ascurra• Active participation of the national representative in the Colabiocli voting, Dr.Natalie Weiler

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS• Participation in the election of positions of the Executive Bureau, January to April 2020
Prof. Dr. Montserrat Blanes.
• Participation in the organization of Euromedlab Munich 27 Nov to 2 Dec 2021, Prof. Dr.
Montserrat Blanes.
• Participation in the meetings of the CCC Congress and Conference Committee, within theframework of the International IFCC Congress Seoul June 2020, to be held in June 2022
- Prof. Dr. Montserrat Blanes.
124• Participation in the Symposium: External Quality Assessment, Alternative Assessment
Procedures, and Critical Risk Values in Molecular Diagnostics: Findings of an International
Survey by the IFCC C-MD. Session 2115 December 16, Topic: Alternate Assessment for
Molecular Diagnostics: Pathway to Quality Assurance for LDTs and Rare Analytes - Prof.
Graciela Russomando, MSc, PhD.
• Participation of the Scientific Publication: External Quality Assessment, Alternative
Assessment Procedures, and Critical Risk Values in Molecular Diagnostics: Findings of anInternational Survey, 05-08-2020 - Prof. Graciela Russomando, MSc, PhD.
• IFCC Working Group on Global Newborn Screening, Dr. Marta Ascurra.
• Participation of the national representative in the IFCC voting, Dr. Natalie Weiler• Participation in the elections by the Executive Bureau, January to April 2020 - Prof. Dra.
Montserrat Blanes• Participation at the WG IANT Ibero American Nomenclature and translation Member andPast Chair - Prof. Dr. Montserrat Blanes

SAUDI ARABIASAUDI ASSOCIATION FOR CLINICAL CHEMISTRYNATIONAL MEETINGSName of the meeting

Date

2nd International Meeting in Clinical Chemistry & Laboratotory Medicine & 6th Annual
Meeting Saudi Society for Clinical Chemistry, Saudi Arabia (virtual meeting)

1-3rd December 2020

Saudi Society for Clinical Chemistry held the 2nd International Meeting in Clinical Chemistry & Laboratotory
Medicine & 6th Annual meeting 1-3rd December 2020 virtually.
The keynote speaker for the conference and the IFCC representative was Dr Graham Beastall from United Kingdom,
Past President IFCC. The conference was accredited by Saudi Commission for Health Specialties for a total of 35
CME Hours, 19 hours for the program and 16 hours for the workshops with more than 1000 delegates attended themeeting.
The Scientific Program included 9 sessions with more than 34 speakers mainly 10 KSA speakers, 7 Regional
speakers (Oman & UAE), 10 International speakers (UK, USA, & Italy) and 7 speakers from industry workshops,
and total 14 posters.
This scientific program included sessions about Laboratory Management, Tumor Biomarkers, COVID-19,
Accreditation and Quality Management, Point of Care Testing, General Clinical Chemistry, Toxicology, Education &Reseearch in addition to Industry workshop and poster presentation session.
Clinical laboratory companies including international and local representatives held a dedicated session within theconference. The sponsored companies were more than 10; Diamond (ROCHE, SNIBE DIAGNOSTIC, & SIEMENSHEALTHINEERS), Platinum (AL JEEL (Biorad), ABBOTT, & BECKMAN), Golden (BECTON DICKINSON), Silver(AnalyticaOne & TAMER), Bronze (ALREDWAN, ABDULLAH FOUAD, & AL BORG MEDICAL LABORATIES).
Conference partenrs; International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC), The ArabFederation of Clinical Biology (AFCB), American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP), Saudi Commission for
Health Specialties (SCFHS), Saudi Society for Clinical Laboratory Sciences, Saudi Quality Council & Virtual Medical
Academy.
By the end of the meeting there was Poster Session Awards Announcement with 14 posters printed, and 4 prizes
for the best 4 posters (photos attahed below) with a total amount of 12,000 SR.
Total activities held by the SSCC in 2020 are summarized in the following table:

125

ACTIVITY

PLACE

TYPE

DATE

RiyadhJournal ClubFeb 12, 2020

1

Journal Club Meeting

2

Pediatric Laboratory Medicine

RiyadhSeminarFeb 20, 2020

3

Selected Topics in Genetic Cancer – Alborg

JeddahworkshopFeb 22, 2020

4

How does the laboratory services function in the COVID-19
outbreakOnlinewebinarApril 19, 2020

OnlineAwareness

May 12, 2020

OnlinewebinarJune 10, 2020

OnlinewebinarJune 16, 20205
6

‫ اوحصت اوموص‬.. ‫ةياقوو ةعانم‬COVID-19: Experience Sharing from South Korea and UK

7

COVID-19 Webinar on laboratory medicine

8

1 Saudi international conference for clinical laboratory
sciences (partner)

OnlineVirtualAug 27,29,
2020

9

Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) Awareness day webinar

OnlineAwareness

Sep 24, 2020

OnlineAwareness

Oct 03, 2020

Awareness

Oct 21, 2020

st10

‫ هبتنأ‬.. ‫عجارتت كتحص‬11

Genomic Medicine and it’s Application in Saudi health caresystem12

Laboratory Medicine & COVID-19

OnlinewebinarOct 28, 202013

prostate cancer awareness

OnlineAwareness

Nov 03, 2020

14

Critical Care Management of COVID-19 patients

Onlinewebinar

Nov 09, 2020

15

COVID-19 Webinar on Inflammation Biomarkers

OnlinewebinarNov 16, 2020

16

Interpretation of Procalcitonin at the Bedside & Clinical Utilityof Procalcitonin in COVID-19 Patient

OnlinewebinarNov 23, 202017

2nd International Meeting in clinical Chemistry and Laboratory
Medicine
6th Annual Conference Saudi Society for Clinical Chemistry +Workshop

OnlineVirtualDec 1,2,3, 2020

18

Comprehensive Workshops for laboratory results

OnlineVirtualDec 07, 2020

19

Journal Club Meeting

OnlineJournal Club

Dec 21, 2020EDUCATION
Many free educational webinars and workshops were held throughout 2020. They are shownin the table above. Most of them were focused on COVID-19 lab updates, prevention andprecaution
REGIONAL MEETINGSName of the meeting
MedLab Dubai

Date

Society’s contribution for the meeting

3rd February 2020

Speakers for Scientific Sessions Med Lab
2020, Dubai (Title: update of laboratory
markers for early detection of diabetic
nephropathy) in addition to booth presentation

REGIONAL RELATIONS
1st March the SSCC joined the Arab Federation Clinical Biology (AFCB) and has become part ofthe one of the regional federation of the IFCC. This will support the society to share common
goals for education of laboratory medicine with the AFCB.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONSCollaboration between the ASCP and SSCC has continued with two presentations which were
given by two ASCP invited speakers; Dr Kamran Mirza, Associate Professor, Pathology Loyola
University Chicago, Health Sciences Campus (ASCP-USA) & Dr. Roger Betholf, Professor (withTenur), University of Florida Health Science Center, ASCP-USA

126

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Photos from different events throughout 2020:
The 6th Annual meeting for the SSCC held at 1st – 3rd December 2020:

Tumor Biomarkers session: Prof. Khalid Alharbi (Moderator), Dr. Heba Kary (speaker), Dr. Manal
Al Kindi (speaker), and Dr. Laila Abdel-warith (speaker).
SSCC Webinar: Critical Care Management of COVID-19 Patients:

127

SSCC Webinar: COVID-19 Webinar on Laboratory Medicine:

COVID-19 Webinar on Laboratory Medicine covered by the SSCC: This photo was taken during
the webinar. It shows Prof. Mario Plebani (speaker) and Dr. Ali Al Othaim (Moderator).

SERBIA

SOCIETY OF MEDICAL BIOCHEMISTS OF SERBIA (DMBS)NATIONAL MEETINGSName of the meeting
22nd Serbian Congress of
Medical Biochemistry andLaboratory Medicine withinternational participation,and 16th Belgrade
Symposium for Balkan
Region23rd Annual Ivan Berkeš
Scientific Conference

Date

Topic

September 23-25th 2020
Due to COVID-19
Congress andSymposium moved to
September 2021

The new concept in quality management in medicallaboratories, organization of external quality control
in laboratory and pre-analytical and analytical errors
management: Diagnostics and treatment by utilizing
new generation of laboratory methods and innovations
in personalized medicine; Novel trends in laboratory
medicine and the risk assessment of metabolicand endocrine disorders; Accreditation in medicallaboratories www.dmbj.org.rs

November 28, 2020,
Belgrade

In 2020, the year of the global pandemic the activitiesof the Society of Medical Biochemists of Serbia (SMBS)
were suspended. and the annual scientific conference“Professor Ivan Berkeš” did not take place. However, theyear 2020 was also the year of the 110th anniversary of thebirth of Professor Ivan Berkeš. On this occasion, SMBS
published the monograph “Life and work of Professor
Ivan Berkeš and Foundation laureates: where are they
and what are they doing today” dedicated to professor
Berkeš’s life and work, and to the laureates of its annual
award. The authors of the monograph are Professor
Nada Majkić-Singh, the founder of the Foundation andits spiritus movens, and Snežana Jovičić, who, as the
IFCC eNewsletter liaison member, was writing a seriesof articles covering the conference over the past years.
However, the Foundation did not miss to hand the welldeserved awards to the best students of the Faculty of
Pharmacy in 2020, Milena Simić (Master of Pharmacymedical biochemist) and Milan Beljkaš (Master of
Pharmacy). SMBS congratulate them on their firstsuccess, wishing them fruitful careers in pharmacy andmedical biochemistry, like the ones their predecessors
have.

EDUCATION
1. Quality Indicators: pre-preanalytical and pre-analytical phases of laboratory diagnostic
investigation
2. Laboratory Management
3. Novelties in Laboratory Medicine
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4. QM development and application in accredited laboratory
5. Laboratory safety
6. Validation of the Laboratrory Methods
7. Laboratory Medicine Environmental Health and Safety
Name of the meeting

Date

Society’s contribution for the meeting

28 Meeting of Balkan ClinicalLaboratory Federation, Sofia

Meeting is posponed to
September 2021

SMBS MEMBERS WILL PARTICIPATE
WITH FOUR LECTURES and postersth

REGIONAL RELATIONS
Cooperation with all Societies from Balkan region, members of Balkan Clinical Laboratory
Federation (BCLF) (see www.bclf.info)
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Cooperation with other Societies members of IFCC and EFLM
Participation in EFLM activities
Participations in Meetings organised by IFCC and EFLM
Dr Snežana Jovičić
Corresponding Member PFLM-WG:
My activities in the EFLM WG Patient Focused Laboratory Medicine included a survey of mobile
health applications using laboratory medicine data. I had worked with other members of the
WG on the quality evaluation of these apps, and I presented results of that work as a lecture atthe 3nd EFLM Strategic Conference in Mannheim. At the WG meeting held at that time, it was
decided to pursue further with this work, and to focus on the benchmarking for the quality ofapps not intended for medical professionals.
Zorica Šumarac, corresponding member of the EFLM WG-PRE
Activities in 2020: Participation in projects of the EFLM WG-PRE:
1. Venous Blood Sampling Guideline
2. Catheter sampling
3. Diagnostics pathway/Demand management
4. Awareness Campaign
5. Unsuitable Specimens
6. Management of Haemolysed Specimens – practical recommendation
7. Haemolysis in blood tubes for glucose
8. Manufacturer declarations
9. Citrate tubes
10. Stability project
Participation in the organization of the 5th EFLM-BD European Conference on the Preanalytical
Phase ; Participation in the organization of the EFLM-AACC Conference 2019; Participation in
the EFLM WG-PRE meeting in November 2019 (Zagreb, Croatia); Participation in conducting
EFLM WG –PRE Survey on Demand management in Serbia;
Activity of Corresponding members in 2020:
WG: Postanalytical Phase(WG-POST)

Svetlana IGNJATOVIC

Corresponding Member

Serbia

3rd term: 2017-2018

WG: Preanalytical Phase(WG-PRE)

Zorica SUMARAC

Fulll Member

Serbia

3rd term: 2017-2018

WG: Accreditation and ISO/CEN standards (WG-A/ISO)

Neda MILINKOVIĆ

Corresponding Member

Serbia

3rd term 2017-2018

WG: Register (WG-R)

Snezana JOVICIC

Corresponding Member

Serbia

1st term: 2017-2018

129

ADDITIONAL INFORMATIONThe Society of Medical Biochemists of Serbia published international JOURNAL OF MEDICAL
BIOCHEMISTRY, the Official Journal of the Society, in which many scientists from region
published own papers (www.dmbj.org.rs/jmb;SCIndex https://scindeks.ceon.rs/journaldetails.
aspx?issn=1452-8258&lang=en)

SLOVENIASLOVENIAN ASSOCIATION FOR CLINICAL CHEMISTRYAND LABORATORY MEDICINE (SZKKLM)
NATIONAL MEETINGSName of the meeting

Date

Topic

Symposium
Slovenian Association for Clinical
Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine

ZOOM meeting, 11.11.2020

Laboratory diagnostics in Pediatrics

EDUCATION
Due to the Covid pandemic, all regular meetings and activities planned for 2020 have beencanceled or postponed to the next year. We have launched a new issue of Laboratory Medicine,professional journal of Slovenian Association for Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
REGIONAL MEETINGSName of the meeting

Date

Society’s contribution for the meeting

IFCC C-MHBLM«ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE &CARDIAC BIOMARKERS TRENDS»

Webinar, 22th September
2020

Evgenija Homšak, was a speaker at themeeting

JIB

Virtual Conference
8-11th December 2020

Evgenija Homšak, as a Slovenian
national representative was a lecturer at
the conference (Round table on Covid
Pandemic)

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Through active members and national representatives of EFLM and IFCC we have establishedinternational professional relations with different countries (participation/organizing common
meetings).
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
2nd October is the Slovenian Day of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine – “TheDay of the Open doors of Clinical laboratories”. On that day we celebrate the beginningsof our professional national organization. On 2nd October each year all Clinical laboratories in
the country open their doors to the public visitors, from general population to the doctors andstudents, who are interested to see and be informed where, by who and how the laboratory
diagnostics and tests are performed. Due to Covid Pandemic we were not able to organize
these events. However, we have managed to rise the voice of Laboratory Medicine throughdifferent national media (TV, radio, newspapers) to point out the role and importance of our
profession and the problematic issues that concern our position, as well.

130

SPAINSOCIEDAD ESPAÑOLA DE MEDICINA DE LABORATORIO(SEQCML)NATIONAL MEETINGSName of the meeting

Date

Topic

XIV National Congress of ClinicalLaboratory (LabClin).
November 8-14th
Virtual meeting. (Co-organizer)

XVIII Meeting of ScientificCommittees.

Posposed due to the pandemic
situation.
New data: 2-5 March 2021. Virtual
meeting.

- An update on Urine sediment.
- Patient Safety.
- Quality specifications. EFLM
Biologycal Variation Data Base.
- Ovarian cancer.
- Gonadal funtion.
- Accreditation in genetics
laboratories.

Interhospitalary Meeting with
Residents and Young Scientists,

Posposed due to the pandemic
situation.
New data: April 16th 2021. Virtual
meeting.

- Pregnant women approach in a
multidisciplinary team. Laboratory
medicine Importance.

Course.

Posposed due to the pandemic
situation.
New data: May 2021. Virtual meeting.

- Analytical validation of theclinical laboratory measurement
procedures

EDUCATION
Annual Educational Program 2019-2020:• XXIII General Educational Program 2019-2020• VI Clinical Cases in Haematology Program 2019-2020• V Clinical Cases General Educational Program 2019-2020• Clinical Cases in Neurochemistry. Program 2019-2020• Implementation of the management requirements of the
UNE-EN ISO15189: 2013 Standard: Case study. Program 2019-2020

634 participants
427 participants
419 participants
286 participants
309 participants

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONSSEQCML has relationships with the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory
Medicine (IFCC).
ADDITIONAL INFORMATIONSEQCML organizes the following EQAS programs:• Extranalytical processes: Preanalytical Phase.
• Biochemistry: General biochemistry tests in serum and urine, HIL indices, Commutablesera with reference values, Urinary sediment analysis, Hormones, TDM, Proteins, Blood
gas-POCT, Cardiac markers, Tumor markers,Haemoglobin A1c, Drugs of abuse in urine,
Trace elements, Autoimmunity and Allergy.
• Microbiology and Serology
SEQCML also participates in the European Project EurA1c.
Nowadays there are 720 centers participating in these programs with a total of 7450 inscriptions.
We are accrediting our programs according to ISO 17043 and are expanding SEQCML- EQAS
Programs and Educational Programs to Latin-American countries.
SEQCML maintains the Spanish version of Lab Tests Online with more than 320 tests and aglossary with more than 498 contents. Consulting LTOES website has registered an average of131

377,430 consultations/ month.
SEQCML has a total of 2858 memberships, 374 members of 33 Commissions/ Committees/
Working Groups and 39 SEQCML Representatives in International Federations (IFCC/EFLM/
FESTEM/CLSI/ICSH).

SWITZERLANDSWISS SOCIETY FOR CLINICAL CHEMISTRY (SSCC)
NATIONAL MEETINGSName of the meeting

Date

Topic

All meetings were canceled due to the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic

EDUCATION
26 days of further education as a CAS in laboratory medicine, which is part of the further
education curriculum in laboratory medicine in Switzerland. This CAS is offered in German at the
University of Zurich (https://www.cas-labmed.uzh.ch/de.html) and in French at the Universityof Geneva (https://www.unige.ch/formcont/cours/cas-medecine-laboratoire). In 2020 most ofthese courses were held as podcasts or virtual courses.

TAIWAN - REPUBLIC OF CHINA (ROC) – TAIPEICHINESE ASSOCIATION FOR CLINICAL BIOCHEMISTRYNATIONAL MEETINGSName of the meeting

Date

Topic

Annual General Meeting (in conjunction
with 2020 Annual Meeting of Taiwan
Society of Laboratory Medicine)

7 November 2020

Progress on identifying novel
biomarkers and therapeutic targets for
immunotherapy

REGIONAL RELATIONS
A contribution of national society report to APFCB News 2020 Issue 2 published in November
2020
ADDITIONAL INFORMATIONCACB held the annual General Meeting and scientific symposium jointly with 2020 Annual Meetingof Taiwan Society of Laboratory Medicine at National Taiwan University Hospital International
Convention Center on 11/7-8 2020. The symposium discussed the role of laboratory medicine
in immunotherapy. Three speakers presented the progress on identifying novel biomarkers andtherapeutic targets for immunotherapy. Dr. Mi-Hua Tao, Research Fellow of Academia Sinica,
gave a keynote lecture on “Current status of cancer immunotherapies and future aspects”.
Dr. Shuen-Iu Hung, Professor of Cancer Vaccine & Immune Cell Therapy Core Lab, at Chang
Gung Memorial Hospital, presented “Precision immune cell therapy for cancers: targeting
neoantigens”. Dr. Huang-Yu Yang, Associate Professor of Nephrology, Chang Gung Memorial
Hospital shared his findings on “MiRNAs as biomarkers and clinical therapeutic targets”.

132

CACB president, Board members and the invited speakers Drs. Mi-Hua Tao, Shuen-Iu Hung,
Huang-Yu Yang at the annual General Meeting and scientific symposium.

ACB president Ms. Hsiao-Chen Ning gave opening remarks at the annual General Meeting.
Planning of 2021 events:
CACB held its Executive Board meeting on September 14th, 2020 and planned for the upcoming
annual General Meeting and scientific symposium. Due to COVID19 pandemic, the 35th Joint
Annual Conference of Biomedical Science (JACBS) was postponed to 2021.

133

CACB president Ms. Hsiao-Chen Ning (center in the front) and Board members at the Executive
Board meeting on September 14th, 2020.
CACB is also planning for its 2021 annual meeting in conjunction with the 35th JACBS, which
has been rescheduled to March 27-28, 2021. CACB will held a symposium on “Toward Next
Generation Clinical Diagnostics and Therapeutics”. CACB invited Dr. Wen-Chien Chou to givea keynote lecture on “Precision Medicine: from blood cancers” and Drs. Wen-Hui Ku, Sui-Yuan
Chang and Kuan-Ying Arthur Huang will also share their recent findings at the symposium.

TURKEYTURKISH BIOCHEMICAL SOCIETY (TBS)NATIONAL MEETINGSName of the meeting

134

Date

Topic

IFCC and EFLM Committees //Working Groups’ Meeting

09/02/2020

Notification of The Association by IFCC Working Group
Representatives

Turkish Journal of Biochemistry
Editors’ Meeting

10/02/2020

The ways for improvement of Turk J Biochem wasdiscussed

5th Turkey In Vitro Diagnostic (IVD)
Symposium_ Izmir Branch of TBS

19/02/2020 21/02/2020

Health Biotechnology “Red Biotechnology”; The Use of
Biotechnology in the Medical and Pharmaceutical Industry

TBS Academy Webinar:
Biosafety Precautions for Medical
Biochemistry Laboratory Workers
in Covid 19 Pandemic: Exampleof Antalya Training and Research
Hospital

24/04/2020

Biosafety Precautions For Laboratory Workers In ClinicalLaboratories
Güzin AYKAL

TBS Academy Webinar: EQ
Approach in COVID-19 PCR tests
19/05/2020
and EQA Program produced entirely
in Turkey

EQ Approach in Covid 19 PCR tests:Doğan YÜCEL • Khosrow ADELI • Selda ERENSOY •Faruk AYDIN • Orhan ÇÖMLEK • Ümit ZEYBEK • ErdalATAÇ • Mustafa KOLUKIRIK • Berna ASLAN • MüjdatAYTEKİN

TBS Academy Symposium:
Covid-19: Clinic and Laboratory

Laboratory and clinical integration• Arzu SAYINER• Serhat ÜNAL27/06/2020

TBS Webinar: About the Additional
Payment KLIMUD-TBD Joint
Meeting: Importance of Medical
Laboratories and Additional
Payment Regulation
TBS Academy Webinar:
COVID-19 - Clinic And Laboratory:
Current Situation And Near Future

20/07/2020

Additional Payment Regulation• Cihan COŞKUN
• Yüce AYHAN• İbrahim KARAKUŞ
• Semra DEMİR

21/09/2020

Clinic and Laboratory• Güzin AYKAL• Mehmet ŞENEŞ
• Çiğdem SÖNMEZ
• Doğan YÜCEL
• Murat AKOVAInformation Technology and Medical Laboratory
SESSION 1:
A Scientist in Gallipoli Peninsula• Miral DIZDAROĞLU

TBS Academy Webinar:
Scientists of the Republic //29/10/2020
Information Technology and Medical
Laboratory

SESSION 2:
What is Artificial Intelligence and What is Not?
• Ebru Akçapınar SEZERLaboratory Medicine in the Age of Artificial Intelligence andthe Future• Hikmet Can ÇUBUKÇU
Information Technologies that Facilitate Clinical Laboratory
Processes: Approval Support Systems and Other
Middleware Applications• Deniz İlhan TOPCU
Session Titles:
Omics, Immunology,
Cancer, Covid 19 and Laboratory Tests, Nutrition andLaboratory.
Key notes:
Scientific Roadmap To Enlighten The Brain; Genetic
Engeneering in Immunology and Cancer; Drug Designin Cancer Therapy Based On DNA Repair; Individual
Reference Ranges; Ministry of Health E-Health Applications

31st National Biochemistry
Congress: Virtual Congress

18/12/2020 –20/12/2020

Satellite Symposia by Industry:
Which Vaccine (APLUS/Berko Drug); SARS-CoV-2
Laboratory Tests and Contribution to Pandemic
Management (Abbott Diagnostics); COVID-19 Diagnostic
Solutions and the Importance of POC Antigen Tests (BDDiagnostics); Coagulation Laboratory Management in
Covid 19 Process (ROCHE Diagnostics)
Social Activities:• ”Non-Route Travel Stories”; ”Fake News” – Rotasız
SeyyahMehmet Genç• Fake News and Scientific Posttruth – Yalın Alpay”Oral Presentations” Sessions
Nazmi Özer Award Ceremony

EDUCATION
Laboratory Mathematics Course -2 - Measurement Uncertainty, Current Approaches in External
Quality Control Evaluation, Six Sigma 29/01/2020• Abdurrahman Coskun
TBD Academy - Distance Education Event -COVID-19 And Clinical Laboratory: Evidence-Based135

Approach To Unanswered Questions About COVID-19 06/06/2020• A.Muhittin Serdar
TBD Academy Distance Education Event - COVID-19 Pandemic Process and Diagnostic Tests
Methodology 20/06/2020• Ebru Saatçi• Gökhan Metan
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONSInternational Meetings:
June 29, 2020: Meeting of Committee On Bone Metabolism• Prof. Dr. Aylin Sepici Dinçel, Board Member of TBS
July 17, 2020: EFLM General Assembly• Prof. Dr. Abdurrahman Coşkun, Board Member of TBS
October 15, 2020: Meeting of WASPALM• Prof. Dr. Ali Unlu, Board Member of TBS
October 16, 2020: FEBS General Assembly• Prof. Dr. Ali Unlu, Board Member of TBS
January 14, 2020:• Prof. Dr. Sedef Yenice, who has served as the chairman of the IFCC Clinical Laboratory
Committee ) (IFCC- C-CLM) since 2014, has been elected as a board member of the IFCC
Education And Management Unit (IFCC-.EMD-EC) and VLP (Visiting Lecturer Program)chair.
2020:• Dr. Hikmet Can Çubukçu, has been selected as a member of IFCC Task Force on Global
eLearning / eAcademy (TF-GEL).
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION• The World Health Organization’s document “Laboratory biosafety guidance related tocoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19)” was transated into Turkish and published (March
2020) (http://turkbiyokimyadernegi.org.tr/upload/48/COVID-19.Labguvenligi.pdf).
• A list of biosafety measures for laboratory personnel was prepared by TBS Working
Group on Safety Agaist COVID-19 and shared with laboratory personnel in Turkey (http://
turkbiyokimyadernegi.org.tr/upload/48/TBD.COVID-19.guvenlik.pdf).
• A biosafety guideline against COVID-19 for laboratory professionals was prepared andshared with laboratory personnel throughout Turkey (http://turkbiyokimyadernegi.org.tr/
upload/48/COVID-19.Labguvenligi.pdf).
• Furthermore, an Information Technology Working Group and a Body Fluid Analysis Working
Group were established under the TBS Academy roof, in addition to other working groups.
• Scientific support was provided to the studies of Ministry Of Health And Social Security
Institution.
• Scientific support was provided for the studies of The Turkish Medical Association (TMA)
and TMA- Coordiation Committee Of Medical Specialty Societies.
• TBS attended to The Medical Specialty Education Congress organised by Turkish Chamberof Physicians (11-12/12/2020).
Three guidelines were prepared by TBS Working Group on Preanalytical Phase of Coagulation
Assays, Blood Gas Analysis and Complete Blood Count.

136

TBS has performed the External Quality Control Program, which is produced in Turkey, for one
year.
A book has been prepared on COVID-19 and laboratory medicine and published under the
publisher Türkiye Klinikleri.

USA

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR CLINICAL CHEMISTRY (AACC)
NATIONAL MEETINGSName of the meeting

Date

Topic

AACC International CPOCT Online– Live virtual meeting

October 2, 2020

Point-of-care testing technologies, management
strategies, and impact of laboratory machinelearning and artifical intelligence

Fully virtual 2020 AACC Annual
Scientific Meeting and Clinical Lab
Expo

December 13 – 17, 2020

Multiple topics throughout laboratory medicine

Fully virutal 18th Annual Point-ofCare Coordinators Forum

December 17, 2020

Topics of interest for point-of-care testing
coordinators

EDUCATION
WEBINARS• SARS CoV-2: Rising to the testing challenge in the United States | Apr 29, 2020
• The Role of Laboratory Diagnostics in SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Related Comorbidities:
Experiences and Population Management Strategies from Highly Affected Regions ofChina and Italy | May 06, 2020
• Clinical Application of High-Sensitivity Cardiac Troponin Testing in the Emergency Setting| May 14, 2020
• Curbing the opioid crisis: The role of the clinical laboratory for pain management | May 20,
2020• Cytokine Storm Syndrome and COVID-19 | May 27, 2020
• The Role of Procalcitonin and Other Biomarkers in the Diagnosis and Management of
Infectious Disease | Jun 11, 2020
• Laboratory & Clinical Perspectives: Understanding Findings of Sex-Specific 99th Percentile
URLs for High Sensitivity Cardiac Troponin Assays Derived From Universal Sample Bank
| Jun 17, 2020
• Analytics in the Clinical Laboratory with R: An Expert Panel | Aug 20, 2020
• Current State of COVID-19 Point-of-Care Testing: Blood Gases, Biomarkers, and Future
Directions | Sep 23, 2020
• Utilizing Procalcitonin For Antibiotic Stewardship: Lessons Learned | Nov 10, 2020
• SARS-CoV-2 Testing: Selecting the Right Test for the Right Person | Nov 12, 2020
• SARS-CoV-2 Testing: Where We are Today | Nov 17, 2020
• Putting SARS-CoV-2 Testing into Practice: Overcoming the Day-to-Day Challenges ofLaboratorians and Infectious Disease Clinicians | Nov 18, 2020
• On the Horizon of SARS-CoV-2 Testing: Improving Testing, Technologies, and Collaborations
Across the Healthcare Team | Nov 23, 2020
• SARS-CoV-2 2021: A Panel Discussion on Impact of SARS-CoV-2 and Near-Future
Considerations | Nov 24, 2020
• The Need for Speed: Strategies to assess the right QC for SARS-CoV-2 and Infectious
Diseases Assays | Dec 03, 2020
• SPANISH-LANGUAGE WEBINAR: Intervalos de Referencia: Conceptos, interpretación
y protocolos de verificación recomendados por CLSI EP28-A3c (Reference Intervals:
137

Concepts, Interpretation and EP28-A3c recommended protocols) | December 2020
CERTIFICATE PROGRAMS
Laboratory Management Programs• Practical Approaches to Quality Control in the Clinical Laboratory• Clinical Laboratory Leadership and Management• Basic Principles and Architecture of Laboratory Information Systems• Statistical Methods for Clinical Laboratorians• Laboratory Operational Management• Regulatory Affairs for Laboratory Compliance
Laboratory Technology Programs• Basic Concepts and Clinical Applications of Flow Cytometry• Introductory Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry for the Clinical Laboratory• LC-MS/MS Troubleshooting for the Clinical Laboratory
Laboratory Testing Programs• Fundamentals of Molecular Pathology• Point-of-Care Specialist• Principles of Clinical Toxicology
ONLINE COURSES• AACC International CPOCT Online• Quality Management Systems: A Course on Cultivating Quality and Addressing Common
Challenges in the Laboratory
REGIONAL RELATIONSMember of the North American Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONSAACC maintains memoranda of understanding with several national societies and federations
for the purposes of mutually beneficial education exchanges.

VIETNAMVIETNAMESE ASSOCIATION OF CLINICAL BIOCHEMISTS(VACB)NATIONAL MEETINGSName of the meeting

Date

Topic

24th VACB National Scientific
Meeting i27-28/11/2020, Dong Hoi

Cardiology,Tumor markers,QA&QC,
Diabetes,MolecularBiology,Immunology,Coronar
Virus,Laboratory Management,Endocrinology

EDUCATION
1. “Laboratory analysis in the Diagnosis and Therapeutic monitoring of Coronar virus
Pneumonia” online course (8/2020)
2. “Laboratory management in the Quality Assurance and Quality Control in the Provinces”
online course (9/2020)
3. “Improvement of the analysis for the diagnosis of Thyroid diseases” online course (10/2020)

138

REGIONAL RELATIONSGood relations with the APFCBINTERNATIONAL RELATIONSGood relations with the IFCCADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Preparation for the National Congress of VACB in 2021

139

AFFILIATE MEMBER SOCIETIESPHILIPPINESPHILIPPINE COUNCIL FOR QUALITY ASSURANCE IN
CLINICAL LABORATORIES (PCQACL)NATIONAL MEETINGSName of the meeting

Date

Topic

Virtulal 17th PCQACL Annual Convention

September 22 - 24, 2020

”Growing Laboratory Quality in the
Midst of Pandemic”

The Philippine Council for Quality Assurance in Clinical Laboratories (PCQACL) has conducted
its very first Virtual 17th Annual Convention with the team “Growing Laboratory Quality in
the Midst of Pandemic” held last Sept 22-24, 2020 through an online platform of Docquity
App. This event was well attended and participated by more than 2,000 delegates from thedifferent clinical laboratories and medical institutions nationwide. An array of scientific lecturesand panel discussions by renowned and distinguished Speakers are all very informative, timely,
and relevant to this time of pandemic. They have really satisfied the gain in knowledge, learningand updates of our convention participants.
The 3- day virtual convention started on Sept. 22, 2020 with the Opening Ceremonies, followedby the pre-recorded scientific sessions covering the track on Human Resources Managementwith the following presented lecture and panel discussion topics:
1) The role of RITM in Test Validation and Research for COVID192) Panel Discussion 1: Current Issues in SARS-COV-2 Testing & Strategies to increase
Surveillance Testing Volume3) Safeguarding Mental Health for Laboratory Professionals, and
4) Manpower Management in the Time of COVID- 19 pandemic.
The second day of the convention on Sept. 23, 2020 was loaded with the following lecture andpanel discussion topics covering the track on Quality:
1) Maintaining Quality in Adversity: ISO Perspective,2) Panel Discussion 2: Laboratory Verification of COVID19 Tests: Philippine General
Hospital Experience3) Panel Discussion 3: Process Improvement for the Post-analytic Phase of Testing: Keeping
up with the Demand of the Times.
Onward to the third day on Sept. 24, 2020 was the track on Molecular Diagnostics and Updates
with the following lecture and panel discussion topics:
1) Panel Discussion 4: Strategies for “Mass Testing”: Concept of RT-PCR pooling,2) Antibody and Antigen Tests for SARS- COV-2: Facts versus Flaws, and
3) Troubleshooting RT-PCR testing for SARS-COV-2.
This last day of the convention was highlighted with the culminating activities of the 3-day
convention and the Closing Ceremonies.
The PCQACL Continuing Education, Training & Research (CETR) Committee has successfully
conducted such a virtual convention and made it possible via Docquity App online platform

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through the technical assistance of our IT Provider (Progressive Productivity Solutions) on thetechnical issues, queries and concerns of the participants with the guidance and supervision of
the PCQACL Committee on Information, Communication & Technology System (ICTS).
EDUCATION
The PCQACL Committee on Continuing Education, Training & Research has conducted thefollowing Webinars last year 2020 :Title: Webinar on Laboratory Empowerment Against Covid-19 ( L.E.A.D)
Date: July 3-21, 2020
Lecture Topics:
A. All about PCR Laboratory
1. Points to consider in setting up Molecular Laboratory for Covid-19
Speaker: Dr. Gregorio B. Cortez, III
2. Good Laboratory Practices when performing Molecular Assays
Speaker: Dr. Karina Michaela Tacujan
B. Histopath and Blood Bank
1. Biorisk Management in the Anatomic Pathology Laboratory amidst Covid-19
Speaker: Dr. Justine Alessandra Uy
2. Laboratory Preparation for Convalescent Plasma Therapy
Speaker: Dr. Joaquin Antonio S. Patag
Title: Webinar on Addressing Current Global Challenges in Healthcare in collaboration
with Sysmex Philippines, Inc.
Date: July 22, 2020
Lecture Topics:
1. Clinical Laboratory Challenges and Needs in the New Normal
Speaker: Dr. Jeffrey So
2. Building the Capabilities to drive integrative molecular diagnostics in the laboratory
Speaker: Dr. Jasper Andal
Title: Live Webinar on Specimen Packaging, Transport and Shipment in collaboration with
Docquity App
Date: September 2, 2020
Speaker: Ms. Mary Glazel Biocarles, RMT
Title: Webinar on Beyond Routines QC Metrics in collaboration with Sysmex Philippines, Inc.
Date: September 17, 2020
REGIONAL MEETINGSName of the meeting / Venue

Date

Society’s contribution for the
meeting

Amidst the challenging times of the COVID- 19
pandemic with the national and international
travel restrictions for safety reasons, some of themembers of the PCQACL Board of Trustees werestill able to attend the following webinars conductedby the IFCC:
1.) Advancing Internal and External Quality
Assurance on a Global Scale
2.) Value and Impact of Laboratory Medicine inPatient Care: Developing the Evidence

October 20, 2020

November 25, 2020

Dr. Aileen Riego- Javier and Dr.
Anacleta P. Valdez who are both
PCQACL Board of Trustees haveattended these two IFCC webinars.

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REGIONAL RELATIONSMember of Asian Network for Clinical Laboratory Standardization and Harmonization (ANCLS)
Member of Asian - Pacific Federation of Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine (APFCB)Member of Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI)INTERNATIONAL RELATIONSPCQACL is an active member of the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory
Medicine (IFCC)
The IFCC-Visiting Lecturer Program has always been requested to provide Speakers at theplenary lectures of the PCQACL annual conventions, seminar-workshops and other scientificsessions. However, it was so unfortunate that due to the COVID- 19 pandemic, the IFCC
Visiting Lecturer Program has been temporarily suspended. Hence, PCQACL was not able toinvite the VLP Speakers.
PCQACL was a Member of Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) which has given
PCQACL the authority to be the distributor of their books and other documents in the Philippines,
procuring of such in bulk and distributing them to facilitate their adoption and implementationby the clinical laboratories.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATIONPCQACL Officers and Board of Trustees, Standing Committees and Chairpersons for
C.Y. 2020
Officers
President:		
Vice-President:		
Secretary:		
Treasurer:		
Auditor:		
P.R.O.: 		
Assistant Secretary:		
Assistant Treasurer:		
Immediate Past President:
Founding President:		

Emil Bryan M. Garcia, MD, FPSPSarah Jane L. Datay-Lim, MD, FPSP
Estela Marie C. Tanchoco, MD, FPSP, MBA
Hasmin D.C. Miroy, RMTErlinda C. Pijuan, RMT
Anacleta P. Vadez, MD, FPSP
Laurie Anne M. Reyes, RMT
Gerrick Joseph C. Dolor, RMTGodwin N. Hernaez, MD, MDM, FPSP,CESE
Tomas P. Maramba, Jr., MD, FPSP

Trustees
Aileen Riego - Javier, MD, FPSP
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Edna May Lasap-Go, MD, FPSPJanuario D. Veloso, MD, FPSP
Rodelio D. Lim, MD, FPSP
Giselle Gay Bermejo, RMTStanding Committees and Chairpersons
Committee on Membership: Estela Marie C. Tanchoco, MD, FPSP, MBA
Committee on Continuing Education, Training & Research: Marissa A. Orillaza, MD, MSCE,FPSP
Committee on Advocacy & International Relations: Elizabeth Y. Arcellana-Nuqui, MD, FPSPCommittee on Information, Communication & Technology Systems: Gerrick Joseph C. Dolor,
RMT
Committee on Finance: Hasmin D.C. Miroy, RMTCommittee on Publications & Public Relations: Anacleta P. Valdez, MD, FPSPCommittee on Annual Convention: Paulo Enrico P. Belen, MD, DPSP
Committee on By- Laws & Legislation: Atty. Shangrila Quezon
Committee on Nominations & Elections: Aileen Riego-Javier, MD, FPSPCommittee on Awards: Edna May Lasap-Go, MD, FPSPROMANIA

ORDER OF THE BIOCHEMISTS, BIOLOGISTS, CHEMISTSIN ROMANIAN HEALTH SYSTEM (OBBCSSR)
NATIONAL MEETINGSName of the meeting

Date

Topic

Annual OBBCSSR National General
Assembly

September 19, 2020

Election of national leading Bodies(National Council, National Executive
Bureau)Annual OBBCSSR Scientific
Conference

November 7, 2020

Cancelled due to CoVID-19 pandemicFirst National Conference on Medical
Laboratory Management

May 16, 2020

Cancelled due to CoVID-19 pandemic – to berescheduled in 2021

EDUCATION
In the context of COVID-19 pandemic OBBCSSR published online on the official website. during
April - May 2020, 4 Guides for medical laboratory professionals:• Practical, indicative Guide to laboratory testing for the new Coronavirus• COVID-19 : False Negative – False Positive Result• 15 Medical Analysis important in COVID-19• Quality Management of Laboratory Diagnosis in COVID-19.
OBCCSR Guide no.3 was cited in the IFCC Information Guide on COVID-19 (Chapter1.General
Information, Global Practice Guidelines/Handbooks), available at https://www.ifcc.org/
media/478459/obbcssr-guide_no3_english-edition.pdf
REGIONAL MEETINGSName of the meeting
Joint XXVII BCLF/XIII BSCL Meeting,Sofia,
Bulgaria, September 30 to October 3,2020

Date

Society’s contribution for the meeting
Cancelled due to CoVID-19 Pandemic – to berescheduled in 2021

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REGIONAL RELATIONSParticipation as a guest at the annual meeting of the BCLF Board in October 2019, when
OBBCSSR has applied BCLF Affiliate membership. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the annual
BCLF Board meeting which had to be held in 2020 was rescheduled.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Since 2020 OBBCSSR is an IFCC and EFLM Affiliate Member. Many OBBCSSR members
participated in the scientific events organized online by IFCC and EFLM during last year.
Participation as a guest at the annual meeting of the BCLF Board in October 2019, when
OBBCSSR has applied BCLF Affiliate membership. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the annual
BCLF Board meeting which had to be held in 2020 was rescheduled.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
During January – March 2020 scientific conferences CPD creditated were organized in the
OBBCSSR territorial branches in Romania, where there are University medical centers(Bucharest, Timisoara, Craiova, Brasov). In 2021 these next scientific events will be rescheduled
depending on the COVID pandemic evolution

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IFCC OFFICE
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Tel: +39 02 66809912
e-mail: ifcc@ifcc.org
www.ifcc.org