August 2013 FSASP Next year s Congress will take place at the CSIR ICC from Sep Please reserve the dates.

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1 SAACB: President:Prof.R.Erasmus; Secretary: Dr M. J. Turzyniecka; Treasurer: Dr A. Zemlin Enquiries: 1 August 2013 FSASP 2014 Next year s Congress will take place at the CSIR ICC from Sep Please reserve the dates. The venue is located near the Hatfield Gautrain station and there are numerous hotels in the vicinity. The cocktail function Sunday 28 July 2013 was sponsored by Roche. Professor Erasmus, co-chair of the COC is pictured, opening the function.

2 2 A bundle of Chemical Pathologists carb-ing it and caffeining it in the exhibition hall in-between the intensive sessions at the Laboratory Medicine 2013 conference. To Carb or not to Carb: Professor Noakes challenges dogma A delegate helps out at the AEC Amersham stand Professor Tim Noakes was the plenary speaker at the Lab Medicine Congress His talk was on Modern dietary advice: What should we be telling our patients? Prof Noakes, pictured here with Dr David Fowler, presented compelling evidence to challenge some of the modern dietary dogmas most of us adhere to eg.the role of carbohydrates in our diet and how much carbohydrate we should be ingesting. No doubt the debate will continue for years to come as each viewpoint is tested and challenged in the courts of our restaurants, fast food outlets and our kitchens. Silence of the Carbs: Dr David Fowler, Chief Medical Examiner Dr David Fowler,the Chief medical examiner for the State of Maryland and renowned Forensic Pathologist was the Forensic Pathology keynote speaker and gave an account of the design of a new Forensic Laboratory Centre in Maryland. Dr Fowler gave a detailed account of the training and services in Forensic pathology offered in his state. Dr Fowler originally hails from the University of Cape Town where he completed his MBChB in 1983.

3 More on LMC SAACB activities at Lab Medicine 2013 IFCC-SAACB Course on Laboratory quality management 28 July 2013 The Two oceans Aquarium, V&A Waterfront was the venue for the workshop The SAACB organised a workshop on Laboratory Quality management at the Two Oceans Aquarium. There were two international speakers, Professor Jocelyn Hicks, past president of the IFCC and Professor Donald Young, another past president. Both of the speakers are eminent in the field of clinical chemistry and it was a great treat for the attendees to tap into the wisdom and experience of the speakers. It was noted at the end that all the speakers had distilled decades of experience into the presentations on laboratory management. The topics covered included: Excellence in the laboratory, Quality Assurance, Financial management and Strategic planning, Participants with Professor Jocelyn Hicks at the workshop Lean Management and risk management, Reducing errors, Choosing equipment, Training and competency assessment. Professor Hicks is an Emeritus Professor of Paediatrics and Pathology at the George Washington University School of medicine. She worked at the Children s National Hospital Centre for 31 years as Director of Clinical Chemistry and then Chair of Laboratory medicine and Pathology. She has previously been president of the AACC and the first and only woman president of the IFCC. She also founded the African Federation of Clinical Chemistry. Professor Young was previously Vice-Chair for Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Chief of Clinical Chemistry at the Mayo Clinic and the NIH. He is also past-president of the AACC and the IFCC and past chairman of the Board of the Editors of Clinical Chemistry. Course on Multivariate Analysis for EBLM A 2 day course on multivariate analysis was held from 31 July Aug Evidencebased medicine (EBM) is widely practiced in therapeutic decision making. The evidence is generally reliable because it is drawn by experiment from randomized clinical trials. Basic statistical testings can be applied to obtain conclusive evidence from the study. On the other hand, evidence-based laboratory medicine (EBLM) depends on the observational study, which is notorious for its susceptibility to bias in interpreting the results. Thus, the evidence from the study has to be explored by applying multivariate analyses to adjust for potential bias. In this hands-on educational course, convened by Prof Kiyoshi Ichihara, basic knowledge and techniques required for the practice of EBLM were provided with the aid of statistical software, StatFlex version 6.0. Prof Ichihara is a Professor of Clinical Laboratory Sciences at Yamaguchi Graduate School of medicine.

4 4 IFCC Beginner s Course in Molecular Diagnostics July 2013 The Committee on Clinical Molecular Biology Curriculum C-CMBC of the International Federation for Clinical Chemistry(IFCC) in collaboration with South African Association for Clinical Biochemistry (SAACB) and Africa Federation of Clinical Chemistry (AFCC) ran a course for Beginners in Molecular Diagnostics in the basic techniques and procedures of designing, setting-up, performing and validating of molecular genetic tests (MGT), their application in Health care and quality assessments. The course was comprised of lectures, lab work and seminars and participation was limited to 20 participants. The course co-ordinator was Professor Tandi Matsha from the Cape Peninsula University of Prof Erasmus, Dr Kenji Izuhara (Japan), Dr Yandi Yako (S.A), Prof Evi Lianidou (Greece), Prof Andrea Ferriera-Gonzales (USA), Prof Matsha Back : Ms Brechtel Ingrid (Germany), Prof Parviz Ahmad-Nejad (Germany) Technology. The venue for the course was the Department of Chemical Pathology at Tygerberg Hospital. Participants described the 5 day course as being extremely intensive as each day was completely filled with activity and they also had preparatory homework for each day but they all found that they had gained a huge amount of knowledge in molecular Participants with Prof Evi Lianidou Mr Thys Mouton and Ms Zelda Vergotine diagnostics. The programme included Basic concepts of PCR (Pre-course); Good Laboratory Practice in Molecular Diagnostics (Day 1); DNA isolation and analysis (Day 2); PCR amplification and protocols (Day 3); Specific detection methods (Day 4); Assay design tools(day 5). Prof Ahmad-Nejad with students Ms Ingrid Brechtel and Prof Matsha

5 Reflecting back on LMC Welcome by Carol Smith, Chair LMC2013 and the hosting societies: Prof. Rajiv Erasmus, FSASP, Ms. Patricia Muller, SMLTSA and Mr. Greg Northfield, SALDA There were 28 countries represented at LMC In addition to the African continent, other countries included Malaysia, China, Germany, Australia, Slovakia, United Kingdom and Trinidad and Tobago. 25 % of the delegates were from Clinical Chemistry, representing the largest sector, followed by Haematology (16%) and Histopathology (11%). There were 4143 Teas and coffees Dr Riaad Moosa served at LMC The first registration received was from Mr Peter de Groot on 25 October The speaker who travelled the furthest was Prof Jocelyn Hicks who came from Washington DC. Monday Night fever hosted by Siemens Monday Night fever hosted by Siemens Stefan Boll, General manager, Abbott Laboratories, SA and Ms Rene Snyman, Managing Director, Beckman Coulter welcoming guests at the Gala Dinner Dr G. Van der Watt from Red Cross Childrens Hospital