IFCC and DPC: Educating the Healthcare Community

The Education and Management Division (EMD) of the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC) recently invited Leo Vankrieken, Eur. Eng., International Marketing Manager, Reproductive Endocrinology for DPC, to serve as EMD Secretary.

The EMD strives to provide IFCC members and the healthcare community with the best education relevant to clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine, directed at scientific, management and clinical issues. Its activities are currently carried out by five committees and one working group. Through his recent appointment Mr. Vankrieken hopes to make more accessible to the healthcare community the valuable information available in a variety of scientific documents and congress proceedings. His commitment to customer education is reflected in his activities at DPC: he has helped to coordinate many clinical studies and has traveled all over the world giving presentations on laboratory diagnostics.

One of the IFCC's latest educational forums took place last October in Kyoto, Japan at the 18th International Congress of Clinical Chemistry (ICCC). The event was sponsored in cooperation with the Science Council of Japan (SCJ) and the Japan Society of Clinical Chemistry (JSCC), with the support of the Commemorative Association for the Japan World Exposition (1970). Attendees from 81 countries were present.

"Laboratory Diagnostics and the Aging Process," presented by Mr. Vankrieken, was among the industry-sponsored workshops offered during the conference. It provided information on reference range studies using DPC's IMMULITE^® systems. These studies document age-related changes in hormone levels, and underscore the importance of determining complete profiles of a variety of hormones in the aging population to arrive at correct clinical diagnoses of hormonal disorders. DPC regularly conducts such reference range studies using the IMMULITE family of automated immunoassay systems.

Prize-winning Poster at ICCC
During the recent International Conference of Clinical Chemistry (ICCC) in Kyoto, Japan, DPC's Leo Vankrieken presented an award-winning poster titled "Reference Limits for Postmenopausal Women Using the IMMULYZE* 2000 Automated Immunoassay System." The poster included data from collaborative, cross-sectional study involving over 800 subjects that was designed to establish reference intervals for reproductive hormones, bone markers and other analytes measured by automated immunoassays in postmenopausal women. The poster earned the distinction of "Excellent."

The monetary prize awarded by the IFCC was divided among the organizations that authored the poster: Klinisch Chemisch Laboratorium, Westfries Gasthuis, Hoorn, The Netherlands; Capaciteitgroep Huisartsengeneeskunde, University of Maastricht, The Netherlands; Faculty of Medicine, General Practice, University of Maastricht, The Netherlands; Dr L Willems Institute, University of Limburg, Diepenbeek, Belgium; and DPC, Los Angeles, California.

*IMMULITE^® products are marketed in Japan under the name IMMULYZE.