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44
| 4 | 2010
Klinisk Biokemi i Norden
(Fortsat fra side 43)
President’s term to one three-year term. Also better
regional representation and the possibility of postal
vote are discussed. The third issue is the introduction
of differential subscription for Membership. Based on
United Nations and World Bank figures there is a 100
fold differential in the national wealth of IFCC mem-
bers. Some national societies from developing coun-
tries have not applied for IFCC membership because
they cannot afford the membership dues. Other
Full Members have their membership dues paid by
wealthy countries, companies or individuals. Other
Full Members report falsely low membership num-
bers in order to reduce their membership subscrip-
tion. As one illustration an increase from 6 to 7 Swiss
Francs per person for those Full Member societies
in countries in the upper half of the national wealth
league would allow a fee of 5 Swiss Francs or less per
person to be introduced for the other Full Member
Societies. IFCC President has requested responses
from the national societies on this consultation paper
by Sept 27, 2010. The date was important because the
above mentioned issues are all documented in the
Statutes of the Federation. If the Statutes are changed
they have to be approved by the Council. The next
IFCC Council will be held in Berlin on May 15, 2011
and the proposals for the change of Statutes have to be
sent to the Membership 6 months in advance.
I want to address one more important topic which
is discussed within IFCC. IFCC President sent a let-
ter to national societies last December asking for
nominees to work on ”Clinical Laboratories and
Environment”. The preliminary discussion on this
topic was scheduled for Corfu. Environmental issues
are now a mainstream concern of our society. Car-
bon footprints, CO2 emissions, environmental deg-
radation and global warming, are day familiar to all
of us from TV and newspapers. All human activity
impacts the environment and the clinical laboratory
is not exempt from this. Those in Corfu experienced
Mother Nature’s power in real life. She showed us how
important environment and nature are for us, all our
lives depend on Mother Nature. We must take good
care of her.
Finally I want to remind you of the next Ortho
Clinical Diagnostics Conference in Paris on Febru-
ary 26-27, 2011 and the title of the conference is
Pregnancy-related Disorders: Present Perspectives
and Emerging Challenges. The information on this
conference is available on the IFCC website. ICCCLM
Berlin is on May 15-20, 2011. (
www.ifcc.org
)
How did I finally get back home? I have to admit
that I travelled quite comfortably by flying like a
grasshopper step by step back home. I stayed over-
night at hotels and had a shower every morning
and nice meals. A 12-hour return turned to a 4-day
struggle, queuing, hoping and waiting, and waiting
and waiting…… Presently I am discussing with the
airline (refused), EU authorities (refused) and finally
with Greek authorities (not tried yet) who will cover
my extra expenses.
Foto: Henrik Alfthan
