The current membership of the APFCB is as follows:
Ordinary (voting) members: 16; Corporate members: 14; Affiliate member: 1

The following persons were elected as officers for the term of office 2007- 2010:
Executive Board:
President: Joseph Lopez (MACB, Malaysia)
Vice-President: Leslie Lai (MACB, Malaysia)
Secretary: Elizabeth Frank (ACBI, India)
Treasurer: Sunil Sethi (SACB, Singapore)
Immediate Past President (ex officio): Chris Lam (HKSCC, Hong Kong)

Chairs of Committees:
Communications (C-Comm): Professor Shen Ziyu (CSLM, Mainland China)
Education (C-Edu): Endang Hoyaranda (IACC, Indonesia)
Laboratory Management (C-LM): Samuel Vasikaran (AACB, Australia)
Scientific (C-Sci): Kiyoshi Ichihara (JSCC, Japan)

Auditors:
Professor Leslie Burnett (AACB)
Professor Jap Tjin-Shing (CACB, Taiwan)

EDUCATION

The APFCB�s Education Committee arranges 3 visiting lectureships, as follows:
APFCB Traveling Lectureship
APFCB � Beckman Coulter Educational Symposium, 2007
IFCC Visiting Lectureship

APFCB Traveling Lectureship has been organised since 1999. The current Travelling Lecturer, the sixth in the series, for the period 2007/08. The topic of this lectureship is Diabetes Mellitus and the Metabolic Syndrome.

While the APFCB Travelling lectureship brings the cutting edge topics to the our members, the APFCB-Beckman Educational Symposium lectures cover topics on laboratory-based issues. The latter has been organised since 2003. The current lecturer is Dr Sunil Sethi of Singapore whose lecture topic is �Emerging issues in laboratory management�.

The IFCC Visiting Lectureship to the APFCB region is a collaborative activity in which the IFCC provides the VL, the APFCB organises the itinerary and national societies host the lecturer. The topic �Evidence-Based Laboratory Medicine� was Professor Andrea Rita Horvath (Hungary) who visited the region in 2006 and again in 2007 when she visited Taiwan, Beijing, Hong Kong and Singapore. In Beijing, Prof. Horvath was a plenary speaker at the 11th APCCB.

The VL to the region in 2008 is Professor Mauro Panteghini of Italy, the SD Chairman who is expected to visit about 8 countries in the region.

SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITIES

The APFCB Scientific Committee undertakes a number of regional scientific projects as follows:

HbA1c Project: Annual surveys to assess the discordance of HbA1c measurement among laboratories with the APFCB region have been undertaken since 2005. The surveys were funded by the APFCB�s corporate members and organised out of Taiwan by the CACB.

Reference Intervals Project: A study of reference intervals of populations in several Asian cities that was coordinated by Professor Kiyoshi Ichihara was completed and paper on the project was published in the February issue of Clinical Chemistry. A new expanded project that will cover more cities and more analytes will be undertaken starting 2008.

eGFR: This project is in progress. It was coordinated by Dr Vasikaran and will now be coordinated by Prof Ichihara.

Scientific Committee Symposium at 11th APCCB: The results of the above 3 projects were presented at a symposium in the main scientific programme of the 11th APCCB. Speakers at the symposium were: Dr Shu-Chu Shiesh (HbA1c) , Dr Samuel Vasikaran (eGFR) and Professor Kiyoshi Ichihara (reference intervals).

LABORATORY MANAGEMENT

Three projects have been proposed for the period 2007-2010.

Assessment of Interpretative Comments: This project to assess the quality of interpretative comment of laboratory results requires very little cost as it does not involve samples. A group of chemical pathologists/senior scientists who already comment on results have volunteered to be part of the oversight sub-committee for this project. An invitation to participate was issued in March 2008 to laboratories in the APFCB region.

Workshop on QA and Laboratory Safety: The C-LM plans to organise a workshop on analytical QC/QA in Sri Lanka jointly with the ACB-SL and the IFCC in 2009. This workshop will be a prototype for similar activities in other countries.

HbA1c: The C-LM will continue the abovementioned very successful HbA1c survey organised by CACB (Taiwan) and expand it to other interested countries and laboratories.

COMMUNICATIONS

The Communications Committee was formed to coordinate all activities of the APFCB that are related to communications, publications and publicity. The APFCB Council endorsed terms of reference of the Committee in Beijing.

APFCB News: The APFCB News is the newsletter of the APFCB. It is published annually. About 4000 copies printed and distributed to APFCB members associations and senior clinical biochemists on all 5 continents. The publication of the 2007 issue was delayed to accommodate news from the 11th APCCB and will be released in March 2008.

Clinical Biochemist Reviews: The CBR is a quarterly reviews journal, published by the AACB in association with the APFCB. It is bulk distributed to APFCB at reduced subscription to clinical biochemists in the Asia-Pacific through APFCB member associations.

APFCB Website: Work is underway to revamp the APFCB website and a company in China has been earmarked to undertake this activity. A new webmaster will also be appointed.

APFCB PHILANTHROPIC FUND and SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAMME

The APFCB Philanthropic Fundwas established in 2005, primarily to support the APFCB Scholarships Programme. The annual grants to APFCB received from IFCC in 2005, 2006 and 2007 have been transferred to the Fund.

Scholarships Offered/Awarded by the APFCB:
The following scholarships are offered by the APFCB, in line with the guidelines of the Philanthropic Fund:

APFCB-Anon scholarship: This scholarship is being awarded for a 3-year period, 2006 to 2008, for the attendance of the AACB�s Annual Scientific Meeting. The selection of the winner is made by the AACB. The 2008 scholarship has been advertised.

Emile von Behring Scholarships Programme: This scholarship is based on an agreement between the APFCB and Dade Behring. The selection committee did not find any suitable candidate for this scholarship 2007. The future of this scholarship is in question following the merger of Dade Behring with Siemens.

APFCB Silver Jubilee scholarships: Five scholarships were provided to young scientists from the APFCB region to attend 11th APCCB, Beijing

APFCB-IFCC Scholarships for the ICCCLM, Fortaleza: The APFCB will provide two scholarships each worth SGD5000, to young scientists to present their work at the ICCCCLM in Fortaleza, Brazil.

ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

The APFCB is domiciled in Singapore. It is a registered body with the Registrar of Societies of Singapore (ROSS). SolidTrack Management of Singapore, were appointed to serve as the APFCB Office in 2005. The Office undertakes the preparation of the APFCB accounts and makes submissions to ROSS and the tax authorities of Singapore, in accordance with regulatory requirements of that country.

The APFCB does not collect a subscription from its ordinary members. Yet finances continue to be healthy with steady increase in liquid assets despite an increase in our activities. The annual and triennial accounts of the APFCB were presented to the Council at its meeting in Beijing on 14th October 2007. Executive Committee receives quarterly accounts and monthly bank statements. Statements of accounts are annually presented to Council.

The new Treasurer has introduced some changes to streamline the financial management of the APFCB. This will be discussed refined and discussed by the Executive Board before being present to the Council.