Contributed by Philippe Gillery , SFBC President and Bernard Gouget, SFBC -FESCC Advisory Board Member

The SFBC is a professional organization serving a network of national and international French and French speaking clinical chemists, physicians and laboratory scientists. Programs and activities of the SFBC are intended to enable laboratories to operate efficiently with a high standard of professional and technical competence improving the quality of care and benefits for the patient by providing a clear vision of the key role of clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine. Continuous education is the mean to disseminate information of best practices at various levels of technology and of economic development. In order to fulfill these objectives, SFBC has developed a formal collaboration with in vitro diagnostic companies, governmental and non-governmental organizations at national and international levels.

The SFBC was founded in 1942 and represents more than 1000 active members. The Administration Council (AC) has 21 members from the private and public sectors. The Executive Board (EB) comprises eight members elected among the members of the Administration Council. The Scientific Committee (SC), (chairs: Dr Roselyne GARNOTEL (Reims, rgarnotel@chu-reims.frrgarnotel@chu-reims.fr This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it ) and Pr Yves PIEMONT (Strasbourg, yves.piemont@medecine.u-strasbg.fryves.piemont@medecine.u-strasbg.fr This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it )) aims are to establish and to improve the standards for scientific, clinical and technical aspects of best laboratory practices. SC plays an important role for establishing the bridge between basic, applied science and clinical care. Formal links are recognized with INSERM, HAS and AFSSAPS. Also, SC is organised and run using modern project management techniques. Key tasks of the SC are to review proposals submitted from the SFBC membership, to approve the progress of projects and to review the SFBC products. This detailed work is undertaken by working groups and task forces. Those collaborations lead to the participation in international working groups for the standardization of techniques and for the organization of international congresses. The current working parties are:

The International Relations Committee (IRC) was implemented to establish and to reinforce the cooperation with international organisations such as the European commission (EC4), WHO, ISO, and worthwhile contacts with professional organizations involved in laboratory medicine such as IFCC, FESCC, WASPaLM and other international societies such as international societies for thrombosis and haematology, molecular biology, therapeutic drug monitoring and clinical toxicology, and so on. The SFBC organizes National Annual Scientific Meetings: - "La Journée du Conseil Scientifique" (The Annual SFBC Scientific Committee conference) dedicated to the discussion of the activities and the perspectives of the working parties as a part of the congress: Journes internationales de biologie clinique organized the second week of November at the CNIT Paris La Dèfense.- "La Journée du Comité d'Interface" INSERM / Clinical Biology, (Annual SFBC-INSERM Joint symposium) - "Sessions de Formation continue" The SFBC is running since many years ago courses on continuous medical training programmes from all subdisciplines of laboratory medicine.

The SFBC presents an annual SFBC Award to clinical chemists or laboratory scientists who work in the field of clinical chemistry, laboratory medicine and clinical laboratory science. The award of 3000 € is presented to recognize the outstanding achievements of these individuals and to make the scientific community aware of exceptional contributions to the advancement in the field of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine.

Les Annales de Biologie Clinique (ABC). The SFBC gives the grant to the publisher John Libbey to publish French recommendations, position papers, scientific reviews, general reviews, original articles, technical note, clinical cases, books reviews, news and guest editorials. The copyright of these contributions lies with the SFBC.

The SFBC Website (www.sfbc.asso.fr) includes membership information, members of SFBC working groups, activities, meetings, symposia, and interactive forum.