eNewsletter 2013 January - February

 
Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to this first newsletter of 2013 and also my inaugural newsletter as the new Editor to succeed Prof Edgard Delvin. It is a great honour for me to take over from Professor Delvin.  I am based in South Africa where I have worked in the academic  and service side of Chemical Pathology/Clinical Biochemistry primarily, with a small role in the private sector. I was previously Professor of Chemical Pathology at the University of Cape Town and the University of KwaZulu-Natal. I have just been appointed as Professor and Head of the Department of Chemical Pathology at the University of Pretoria. The challenges faced by laboratory medicine in South Africa, be it at the level of teaching, training and service are by no means unique and are very likely to affect all countries and it has always been highly informative to engage with international colleagues at the various IFCC meetings to learn how different societies and members deal with these.  I have previously been secretary of the national association, the South African Association for Clinical Biochemistry, where I was responsible for the local newsletter and have worked with the last two Presidents of the national association, Professors Rajiv Erasmus (current president) and Vanessa Steenkamp (now also president of the AFCC and IFCC Board member). I am also discipline Editor for the Journal of Clinical Pathology, part of the BMJ group  based in London.

I would like to continue the tradition of a vibrant IFCC newsletter and trust that the contributions from member societies will continue to be prolific and enthusiastic. The newsletter needs continuous contributions from all members and suggestions to improve the newsletter will be most welcome. I plan to ensure that international representation of societies is maintained in the IFCC newsletter by regularly soliciting contributions from the national societies and also , in turn, ensuring that the activities of the IFCC are regularly communicated to the national societies via the newsletter.

We would like to have more letters to the Editor from readers, expressing constructive views, opinions and suggestions on IFCC business. Although this is part of the remit of the newsletter, contributions have not been forthcoming. I would therefore like you to encourage you to contribute and to stimulate intellectual debate on matters pertaining to the IFCC and its scientific disciplines. There is current discussion taking place on the format of the newsletter and there have been suggestions to use newer online publishing methodologies. These discussions will continue in Milan, at Euromedlab.

We will continue to have regular features on IFCC events, events of member societies and associations and reports on the outcome of the various IFCC funded initiatives across the world. In this issue, we feature the awardees of the IFCC Roche Travel Scholarships, reports from recipients of the IFCC Professional Scientific Exchange Programmes and news from members across the globe.

I look forward to receiving your communications and contributions and engaging with you at future meetings.

Thanking you in advance

Regards

Tahir Pillay