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6
| 4 | 2008
Klinisk Biokemi i Norden
Baltic and Nordic collaboration: together,
parallelly or different paths?
Jarkko Ihalainen
NFKKs ordförande
jarkko.ihalainen@welho.com
During the Nordic Congress in
Helsinki I had the pleasure to
meet the representants from our
Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian
neighbour associations. We deci-
ded to have a longer discussion
on coordination of congresses etc
at the Baltic Congress in Jurmala
near Riga in September.
The
Baltic
organisation
(BALM) has existed only a few years and is thus
significantly younger than NFKK. Also the scope of
the organisation is somewhat different. According to
what I saw at the congress and have understood from
several discussions, the Baltic model for education
of laboratory specialists is mostly ”polyvalent” i.e.
clinical chemisty/biochemistry and most of clinical
microbiology are within the same specialty. The dif-
ference is interesting and it might be worthwhile to
study the benefits and weaknesses of these models
The main issue for actual discussion were the
congresses. The current interval system means that
Baltic and Nordic congresses take place on the same
year. This might not be a major problem for the pro-
fessionals from the laboratories, since not many of
us visit both events. Situation is different to our col-
leagues and collaborators from IVD industry. Many
companies have included Nordic and Baltic countries
more or less under the same marketing area. This
means, that the resources are split to two congresses
on the same year. Also professionals may miss the
opportunity for interaction across geographical and
traditional borders.
The NFKK has already announced the Oslo con-
gress 2010 and also preparations for the congress in
Iceland 2012 have been begun. Thus we do not see
good prospects for changing the timing of Nordic
congresses during the next years. Situation may be
somewhat different concerning the Baltic congres-
ses. 2011 is a challenging year to have any clinical
laboratory congress in the Northern Europe since the
IFCC world congress will take place in Berlin. Thus
the postponement of the planned Baltic congress in
Estonia 2010 may thus not be easy. The discussions
are continued and the result will be seen in due time
in congress announcements.
Jag vill tacka alla som svarade på enkäten om
NFKK Labmed 2008 i Helsingfors. Vi fick omkring
260 svar. Kvoten svar är omkring 35% vilket inte är
en dålig siffra. Generellt var responsen positiv. Vi
frågade om praktiska arrangemang, vetenskaplig och
praktisk betydelse av programmet samt kongressens
effekt på vardagslivet i laboratorier. Enkäten distribu-
erades först två månader efter kongressen i syfte att få
veta mera on effektiviteten och betydelse av kongres-
sen på längre sikt.
Statistiken av svaren läggs till kongressens hemsida
www.labmed2008.fi efter NFKK:s styrelse och alla
kongressorganiserare har haft möjlighet att bekanta
sig med det. Vi lägger inte fritext svaren på nätet men
deras innehåll informeras till organisationskommit-
tén för kongressen i Oslo.
NFKK har sitt styrelsemöte i Oslo i mitten av
november. Där diskuterar vi Lorentz Eldjarns testa-
mentsdonation, NFKK:s generella ekonomi i tider
av finansiell turbulens samt beslutar om ansökningar
tilll Nordfond och eventuella nya projekt.
