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Klinisk Biokemi i Norden · 4 2017
NFKK2018: Information beyond numbers
Outi Itkonen, Ph.D.
HUSLAB, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland
The Finnish Society of Clini-
cal Chemistry (FSCC) is proud
to organise the XXXVI Nordic
Congress in Clinical Chemistry,
NFKK2018, subtitled “Informa-
tion beyond numbers” on 12-15
June 2018 in Helsinki, Finland
).
We are expecting 400-600 participants mostly from
Europe, but also from other countries. The scientific
program will cover a wide spectrum of laboratory
medicine. The social program will enable a pleasant
opportunity to meet old colleagues and to establish
new connections. Have a glance at the program below
and note, that registration is open from the 1.10.2017!
Preanalytical quality:
The work and progress of
the European and the Nordic working groups on
preanalytical issues will be presented on Wednesday
morning June 13th. First, Janne Cadamuro from the
European working group will tell us what is new in
the European sampling guideline. In order to keep
the atmosphere engaged and use the time efficiently
we will then have short presentations from represent-
ants of the Nordic working group. The topics will be
everything preanalytical: EQA, e-learning, fasting
harmonization, sample auditing and haemolysis in
connection to sample reject.
Newborn screening:
Newborn screening for inborn
errors of metabolism has been a standard method
for several years or decades in several countries. It
was started first as a pilot study in Finland in 2007,
and during the last few years the screening has been
widened to cover the whole country. The feedback
from the screening has been good and the screening
practice has generally been accepted. The purpose of
the scientific session of newborn screening is to hear
long term, as well as more recent, experiences from
the screening in the Nordic countries. The objective
is to learn how the screening could be improved and
how other countries might have tackled the obstacles
in the screening. Including new target diseases in the
screening will be discussed. We plan to get a broad
view on newborn screening of metabolic disorders
in the Nordic countries in this two hour session.
IT safety and laboratory:
Medical laboratories iden-
tify situations and potential events which might risk
the patient safety with different severity and prob-
ability. The risk may be either direct or non-direct.
From the risk management point of view IT safety in a
modern laboratory should be highly prioritized. This
is because information technology and digitalization
are strongly connected to laboratory work day and
night. The dimensions of IT safety are many. Subtitles
under IT security, such as information and computer
security, data protection, malicious software and even
terrorist network, will be enlightened. IT network in
health care including the laboratory, is challenged by
the diversity of software and applications supplied
and maintained by independent providers. To ensure
the patient safety the importance of IT continuity in
all situations will be discussed also from practical
laboratory point of view.
Modern Hematology Laboratory Session:
Modern
techniques have already now revolutionized our
understanding of the pathobiology of many hema-
tological malignancies. Gradually these techniques
such as different next generation sequencing (NGS)
platforms and high throughput flow cytometry appli-
cations are entering to the routine diagnostic labora-
tories. In this session, we will hear up-to-date infor-
mation of NGS applications in hematology, explore
the possibilities of digital microscopy and artificial
intelligence, and learn what mass cytometry (a novel
platform for high-dimensional phenotypic and func-
tional analysis of single cells) can offer for hematol-
