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| 4 | 2009
Klinisk Biokemi i Norden
IFCC NEWS
Päivi Laitinen
IFCC Secretary
paivi.h.laitinen@ppshp.fi
This year we had a nice, warm
sunny summer in Northern Fin-
land, which we were expecting
so anxiously As i wrote in my
previous column the summer
started with the happy event of
the high school graduation of
our younger son The next happy
family event was on July 17, when
our first grandchild was born,
on his uncle’s 20th birthday, the one who graduated
at the end of May My husband and i spent a part of
our summer vacation helping the young parents with
the baby it is amazing how small the babies are; one
forgets it so soon!
The EuroMedlab 2009 was held in innsbruck on
June 7-11, 2009 innsbruck itself was a nice expe-
rience with the Alps around the city, what a beauti-
ful place! The congress was well-organized and the
congress venue was in the middle of the city Euro-
Medlab 2009 was a success with 2681 participants
from altogether 84 countries The scientific program
consisted of 32 scientific sessions and 29 industry
sponsored workshops by 90 speakers 867 posters
presented interesting and important scientific achie-
vements in the exhibition about 70 companies from
all over the world exhibited their latest equipment
and instruments on an area of 2620 square metres
Social program was also interesting with the Get-
together Party in front of the Golden Roof, organ and
symphony concerts and the Summer Ball i took one
afternoon some time for a short sightseeing tour to
see the Ski Jump Tower EuroMedlab was a memo-
rable experience
The EuroMedlab 2009 innsbruck Congress was a
success, the scientific and social program were excel-
lent in quality and gave all participants possibilities
to meet with each other, hear good music and learn
many new scientific achievements The congress
week was a long tournament and i have to confess
that with all the meetings and other responsibilities i
had and all the lectures i listened during the congress,
i was exhausted by the last day of the congress
i had a very busy congress schedule iFCC
Executive Board had its two-day meeting prior the
congress during the congress days i had several
iFCC and EFCC meetings on Sunday, prior the
opening Ceremonies, iFCC Executive Board had
an open meeting “Adding value to laboratory
Medicine” This was an important meeting, where
iFCC President Graham Beastall first informed
the meeting of the on-going projects to improve
the recognition of our specialty The main message
was that about 70% of clinical decisions are based
on laboratory medicine and yet we use less than 4%
of the budget of the whole healthcare laboratory
medicine is one of the main targets of the budget-
cuts in hospitals how much can you save in healt-
hcare by cutting the budgets of the laboratories?
And yet there are publications showing that by
using more laboratory tests the cities and counties
could save more in total cost of healthcare
The take-home message was that we all profes-
sionals need to be more actively contacting clini-
cians, clinical associations and even politicians
in cities and counties to convince them of the
importance of laboratory medicine
it was fascinating to hear how much effort and
time our colleagues in different countries are
willing to put into laboratory medicine A lady
from Romania told how she had taught laboratory
medicine to general practitioners, which tests to
order, how to interpret test results etc This was a
(Fortsætter side 42)
