commongoals under several different "umbrellas".
At the millennium the five now independent
laboratories atLandspitalinn in clinical biochemis–
try, haematology, immunology, bacteriology and
virology wiii merge into the Institute ofLaborato–
ry Sciences. The management structure is to be
changedmaking the laboratories financially inde–
pendent,with increased administrative and policy
making power in the hands of the laboratory di–
rectors. The institute will however continue to be
part of theHospital Organisation and the physical
locations are to be the same. Similarfinancial al–
terations are to take place at the Clinical Chemis–
try Laboratory at the Reykjavik Hospital.
Specialist training programmes in the laborato–
ry disciplines have been under development for
some and at present it is possible to start a specia–
list training in several laboratory disciplines and
spend the first half of the training period in lee–
land and complete the training elsewhere. The
Royal College of Pathologists in London has is–
sued a statement saying the laboratories at Lands–
pitalinn fulfill the U.K. requirements for a train–
ing center and encourage young doctars to com–
plete the seeond half of their training period in the
UnitedKingdom. The majority of youngdoctars
do however choose to participare in a full training
programrue abroad. Structured programmes for
higher academic degrees, bothMSc and PhD, are
now offered in many subjects within theMedical
Faculty. Several students, both medically quali–
fied and people with degrees in biology, bioche–
mistry or related subjects are participating in the–
se studies.
Two important issues that concem all medical–
ly qualified people in leeland as weil as the popu–
lation as awholehavebeenmuchpublicised,discu–
ssed and debated in recent months. One is the bill
on a centralised health sector database that was
passed after heated debates both in and outside
Parliament (Althingi) last year. The object is to
authorise the creation and operation of a centrali–
sed database ofnon-personally identifiable health
data derived from medical records, both new and
reaching some time back. The licence for opera–
tion will be granted for a maximum of 12 years
and a special committee is to supervise the opera–
tion ofthedatabase. Health authorities are to have
access to statistical information from the database
for health reports, planning and policymaking.
This is a commercial enterprise and is still hotly
Klinisk Kemi
i
Norden 3, 1999
debated. The other issue of great importance to
the medical profession, is a bill that has been in–
troduced inParliament, regarding research and sto–
rage invalving human biological samples (materi–
als). This bill is not directly connected to the cen–
traliseddatabasebut it cancerns everyoneworking
with human biological materials, whether thema–
terial was sampied for diagnostic or scientific pur–
poses.
About three years ago a new company, deCO–
DEgenetics,based inReykjavikwas founded. The
companywas launchedwith $12million provided
by foreign venture capita) investors and it is con–
ducting research into the inherited eauses ofcom–
mon diseases. Togetherwith pharmaceutical
cam–
panies and health-care institutions, deCODE aims
to utilize its research to develop newmethods for
identifying, treating and preventing diseases. The
company claims that a population-hased approach
will, more rapidly and more specifically, identify
genes invalved in certain diseases, allowing the
company and its corporate partners tomovequick–
ly to target validation, screening and drug deve–
lopment. The addition of the leelandie centrali–
sed health sector database, which is currently un–
der negotiation between deCODEgenetics and the
Ministry ofHealth, will give the company another
distinct advantage over its international competi–
tors when it comesto analyzing the interplay bet–
ween genes, environment, disease, treatment and
outcome. This young company with over 250
employees has broadened the scopeofbiomedical
research in leeland andactedas a stimulant inboth
research and education.
In the past number of years medical research
activities within the University, the hospitals, and
in private research institutions like the leelandie
HeartAssociation and the leelandieCancerSociety
have been growing, getting more funding, aurac–
ting more students and in general showing greater
prosperity than ever. The increased research acti–
vities have stimulared the clinical chemistry envi–
ronment and may in due course influence the way
our discipline will evolve in the near future.
TheNordieCongress inClinical Chemistrywill
be held inReykjavik inAugust 2002, there is how–
ever the Bergen Congress still to come so we will
wait until after that to bidyouwelcome toReykja–
vik.
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