What a year my first year as Chair of the Division was!  There were many accomplishments; and at the same time many challenges still lay ahead.  This past year saw the continuation of a changing membership in the Communications and Publications Division Executive Committee membership.  Professor Mario Plebani joined us this year as the new IFCC Editor of Documents, replacing Dr. Peter Lehmann, who served in that position for six years.  Professor Montserrat Blanes Gonz�les was appointed as the new editor of the IFCC eJournal Diagn�stico in vitro and co-editor, with Professor Xavier Fuentes Arderiu, of the Rinc�n Iberoamericano (RIA) section of the IFCC website.  Additionally, we have a vacancy in the Website Editor/Distance Learning Coordinator position, for which a call for nominations was sent out. 

As I reported last year, my first goal for the CPD EC was to develop a three year strategic plan for the division, comprising of various goals within the following four areas of concern:

1)      Improve Internal communications within IFCC
2)      Website Improvements
3)      Enhance Distance Learning Opportunities for Member Societies and Their Membership
4)      Enhanced Public Relations/Improve Visibility
The plan was created and approved by the IFCC Executive Board.  Please see the IFCC annual report for a complete description of the CPD strategic plan.  

I am happy to report that significant progress has been made in accomplishing the various strategic plan goals, especially relative to improved visibility and enhance public relations.  The Working Group on Enhanced Public Relations has been extremely active and, with the addition of the �Labs are Vital� initiative (see below) became the Committee on Public Relations.  Its accomplishments to date include:

An updated Milstone brochure which was released at the 2007 EuroMed Congress Development of an IFCC Promotional Brochure which to date has been published in English, Chinese, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish, and is currently being translated into Arabic, French and German.

Of greatest significance was the decision for the IFCC to join with Abbott Diagnostics in the �Labs are Vital� public relations initiative.   This is a �Laboratory Survival Program�, sponsored by Abbott Diagnostics but at arms-length.  The main goal is the promotion of the laboratory profession.  The IFCC was invited to become a partner in this venture.  The recommendations for an IFCC and Global �Labs are VitalTM� program include:

1) Reinforcing the importance of IFCC to international members.
2) Developing a Global Website presence.
3) Global Media monitoring and rapid response.
4) Global Lab week initiatives (to promote Labs in many countries � brochures and leaflets).

The official launch of this initiative will occur at the IFCC General Conference in April 2008 in Antalya.

We continue to explore ways of employing new digital technologies, such as Voice Over IP telephony and Really Simplified Syndication, to enhance our ability to provide distant learning opportunities, e.g., distribution of recorded lectures, podcasting. A new website is being developed which hopefully will give us greater visibility and enhanced opportunities to provide distant learning programs to our membership.  We are now hosting the IMCLGS/CLGGS consortium (Clinical Laboratory Genomic and Genetic Standards) and the European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFCC) websites using the IFCC infrastructure.  Discussions continue with the C-NPU regarding the hosting the IFCC-IUPAC coding system on the IFCC website, currently there are over 22,000 entries in the database and we will be working with the C-EBLM to get their evidence based medicine database on the new website.  

As I have previously stated the Communications and Publication Division Executive Committee is comprised of excellent individuals who bring the right mix of skills to address the challenges ahead. This has been evidenced by our accomplishments to date and the path we have laid to move forward.  I am proud to work with them and look forward to our future years as a team.