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Klinisk Biokemi i Norden · 3 2014
The Arctic Experience 2014
Charlotte Gils, Anne Lindegaard Christiansen
Klinisk biokemi og Farmakologi, Odense Universitetshospital
email:
From January 28th – 31th people from Denmark,
Sweden and Norway met in Finse, Norway with the
purpose of attending the course: The Arctic Expe-
rience 2014 - a course in writing a scientific paper for
medical doctors and biochemists. Furthermore, the
course establishes contacts among the Scandinavian
countries by participants meeting equal juniors and
experienced seniors, who have been writing a lot of
articles in the area of biochemistry.
The main task was to write a manuscript presen-
ting quality evaluation of an instrument designed
for near-patient-testing of cardiac biomarkers and
a biomarker for venous thromboembolism. The
instrument, Cobas h 232 system, Roche, measures
N-terminal prohormone of brain natriuretic peptide
(NT-proBNP) and it is intended as a tool for diagno-
sing or excluding heart failure.
Tuesday, Arriving To Finse
Participants coming from Bergen arrived a few hours
before participants fromOslo and therefore had time
to socialize and to explore the near-by areas. Asking
the receptionist for an exciting short walk the answer
was: “Without dog sled or skies you are not able to go
anywhere ... Instead you might be doing a small walk
around the hotel!”.
When all the participants had arrived, the course
started with a small introduction to the program for
the following days and a short lecture in the structure
of a manuscript.
The dataset for the manuscript was presented by
Grete Monsen from Scandinavian evaluation of labo-
ratory equipment for primary health care, SKUP. She
explained the practical procedures concerning the use
of Cobas h 232 system, the reference method and the
results based on specific goals for quality decided by
Roche. Getting a small introduction to the manus-
cript was helpful for understanding the practical dif-
ficulties, when using Cobas h 232 system.
It was late in the afternoon, but before getting din-
ner we had a chance to meet in the premade groups
and get to know each other. The plan was to find a
group leader, to discuss the content of the report and
to plan the work for the next two days. Each group
consisted of people from the different countries and
an experienced supervisor was assigned to each of
the three groups.
The day ended with a late, delicious dinner at 9 pm.
Wednesday, Scandinavian Vikings Day
A lot of work was lying ahead. The day began with
four small lectures in how to write the materials &
methods and results sections, how to prepare figu-
res and tables and how to properly present statistic
results in manuscripts. Following these lectures the
groups should write these sections during the rest of
the day. Time was a major challenge and at the end
of the day all groups had done a large part of these
sections, but still far from keeping up with the plan-
ned time schedule. The spirit was high, though, and
an upcoming social relaxing activity made us stay
tuned with optimism for the work that still awaited
the third day.
The social activity was a relaxing, warm bath in the
most beautiful Norwegian surroundings (including a
little alcoholic beverage). Here, it became clear that
only the true Scandinavian Vikings could make it to
the bath since getting there involved a tiny walk down
