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Klinisk Biokemi i Norden · 3 2013
Fig 3.
Picture taken at our latest section meeting in April
2013 in Stuttgart, through the window of the Mercedes-Benz
museum.
UEMS as such has declared a statement about con-
tinued professional education and we therefore assist
EACCME (The European Accreditation Council for
CME) with the accreditation of educational events
in our area of expertise. Furthermore, together with
EFLM (European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and
Laboratory Medicine) we arrange a joint congress with
the theme of the laboratory being a bridge between the
clinicians and the patients. Our next congress with be in
Liverpool, England, United Kingdom in 2014. Together
with EFLMwe also have a working group on guidelines
chaired by one of our delegates, Wytze Oosterhuis, MD.
We try to increase the visibility of the physician in
the laboratory and have recently had a paper on this
subject accepted (1).
We are soon ready to launch our newwebsite to make
it easier to follow along what is happening in Europe. I
have learned that even though the speed of European
collaboration might feel slow, it is here where things are
developing. The last few years we have streamlined our
way of working in the section, improving our outcome
and the financial situation, which means that we can
now offer travel grants to junior physicians to participate
in our joint Congresses.
Is there a Nordic voice in UEMS?
The result of our work depends on our delegates’ true
passion as all work is done in our free time (Fig. 3).
Having come this far in the letter, I have finally reached
the important question. Clinical chemistry is a small
specialty in Europe. In the Nordic countries and in the
Netherlands we have a common way of viewing speci-
alties, but since only Finland and Sweden are sending
delegates our voice is not very powerful. In the Nether-
lands the register for physicians has been closed for a
couple of years, but it is a long fight that I hope will
soon find an amicable solution. Even if we might use
the word clinical chemistry we interpret it differently in
Europe, e.g. in England haematology is not included in
clinical chemistry as it is in Sweden. In most of Europe,
the physicians are educated in general laboratory medi-
cine including microbiology, not in a single speciality.
At our divisions meetings the clinical chemistry division
and the general laboratory medicine division have their
meetings together because we realize that our problems
and solutions are similar.
My personal view is to emphasize the necessity to
have physicians in the laboratories, and that they need
to be well educated. Whether they are specialists in
Clinical chemistry or General laboratory medicine is
of secondary importance.
A short report from each meeting can be found on
the Swedish Association for Clinical chemistry’s home-
page (
internationellt/uems/).
Greetings from the section of Laboratory medicine
with hope to have delegates from all Nordic countries
in the future!
References
1. Misbah SA, Kokkinou V, Jeffrey K, Oosterhuis
W, Shine B, Shuh A, Theodoridis T. The role of
the physician in laboratory medicine: a European
perspective. J Clin Pathol
2013; 66:432-437.
