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Klinisk Biokemi i Norden · 4 2016
been established. There are of course also many other
WGs, dealing with other scientific, regulatory, profes-
sional aspects etc.
Why be president?
I do not think that anybody should have a leader posi-
tion without having some ideas of what they want to
achieve. However, it is important that this is not the
visions of one person that are carried out, but the
wishes of all the members in EFLM. A position as
president of EFLM last two years – and before that
two years as president elect and after that two years as
past president. Two years are a short time. When I was
director of the Laboratory of Clinical Biochemistry at
Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen it took me
ten years to achieve what I wanted to. In two years,
I cannot fulfil all my wishes for the EFLM, but I do
hope that I together with the executive board (EB) and
the national societies (NSs) will manage to steer the
organisation in the direction we want, to emphasize
what we think is important in laboratory medicine
and not to spend much time on unimportant issues.
After my election as president in March 2016, the
EFLM circulated a letter asking the NSs what they
would like the EFLM to prioritize in the coming two
years’ period. From this response and from responses
within the EFLM, the EB generated a “strategic plan”.
Strategic plans are often a lot of nice words without
any concrete actions linked to them. I do hope that
this is not the case with our Strategic plan. The Stra-
tegic plan 2016-17 is now finalised and sent to all NSs.
You can find it on the EFLM website under “official
documents”, and I will elaborate on a few of the items.
What do NSs want from the EFLM?
One common issue that the NSs mentioned in their
response was that they wanted EFLM to be more
visible in their daily work and produce material that
can be used nationally. This has been emphasised in
the plan. Some of the activities designated to sup-
port the NSs are production of educational material,
publication of EFLM guidelines or recommendations,
organisation of more educational courses with small
groups activities, visits to the national societies and
to run a “satisfaction survey” to monitor if EFLM is
indeed doing what the NSs want EFLM to do. Some
NSs societies already organise a “laboratory day” in
their countries. This is something we should encou-
rage throughout Europe.
Strategic conference
EFLMwill in the next few years organise a new strate-
gic conference. The 1
st
was organised around the topic
on
How to define analytical performance specifications
(see CCLM issue 6, 2015) and TFGs are now working
on topics generated from this meeting. The next
Strategic Conference should deal with an important
strategic theme in laboratory medicine and the NSs
societies have been asked to come with proposals.
It will probably be decided by the EB this autumn.
Register of specialists in laboratory medicine
One of the items that is still not merged between
the EC4 and the EFLM is the EC4 register which
has been a separate legal entity. The intention was
that this should be a register of specialists in labora-
tory medicine in the EU countries. The idea is now
to establish it within the legal framework of EFLM
and hopefully later to expand it to all European
countries. One intention with the register is to get
EU to recognise specialists in laboratory medicine as
a specific discipline and to secure “free movement”
for our profession.
Establish increased collaboration with clinical
societies
EFLM already has some cooperation with clinical
societies, e.g. a TFG on “Laboratory testing for dysli-
pedemia” which is a cooperation between EFLM and
the European Atherosclerosis Society and European
Society for Cardiology. This TFG has a strong repre-
sentation from the Nordic countries. More initiatives
towards cooperation with clinical societies will be
taken.
Liaise with EC and accrediting institutions
EFLM has cooperation and/or representatives in EC,
CEN, EQ, EDMA and ISO. One important goal was
achieved this spring when the new IVD regulation
was amended to demand that the IVD manufacturer
should be transparent about the lot-lot variation in
value assignment in the information provided to the
user in the package insert.
Improve the professional work and science of
EFLM
Of course one of the most important tasks, and one
that is really close to my heart, is to stimulate the
EFLM officers to continue with their important
