IFCC eNews December 2018

Evgenija Homšak je zapisala:

"In Slovenia, the 2nd of October is the “Slovenian Day of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine” and it marks the founding of the Slovenian Association for Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (SZKKLM)
in 1961.
In the 1950s, our colleagues who had been working in the field of medical biochemistry felt the lack of being interconnected within a professional society. They wished for a society that would pursue better recognition of medical biochemistry in Slovenian health care and enhance its professional development and value.
In 1958, the Slovenian Chemical Society established a Section of Biochemistry. Its members tried very hard to enrol medical biochemists as well.
On 2 October 1961, our colleagues of that time decided to join the Slovenian Pharmaceutical Society and established a Section of Medical Biochemists within it. The Society had 29 members (pharmacists, chemists, biologists, doctors and technicians) at the time and acted as a part of and within the Slovenian Pharmaceutical Society.
After 33 years, in 1995, the association became independent, under the name of Slovenian Association of Clinical Chemistry (SZKK) and with its own respective first statutes.
Throughout the years, professional activities, and the activities within the SZKK increased. The profession achieved noticeable progress and development within the society during the 70s and the 80s. At that time, the internal verification of quality of work within clinical chemistry laboratories was enhanced; external verification of quality of work was implemented; procedures of analysis were unified, educational system was improved and branched; permanent courses of education started including all profiles, with different levels of achieved education (technicians, engineers, specialists) and Republican professional College of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine began to operate.
The number of members has steadily increased over the years and today the association connects 324 members with different educational backgrounds. More than half of them are university graduates in pharmaceutical, chemical, biological, biochemical or other biomedical professional fields. Most of them have also successfully completed specialisation in medical biochemistry at the Ministry of Health.
The common goal of the society and members is to ensure a constant development of clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine in Slovenia, following international standards.
In 1994, SZKK joined the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC), and in the mid-90s, it joined the European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFLM). Since that time our members have been actively involved in various working groups and committees of the IFCC and EFLM.
In an effort towards better recognition and harmonization of our profession at the EFLM level, in March 2014, the society was renamed the Slovenian Association for Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (SZKKLM).
SZKKLM is also associated with other Slovenian and foreign professional, scientific, research and educational institutions. In cooperation and under the auspices of IFCC and EFLM, the SZKKLM regularly organizes Slovenian and international congresses of clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine; conferences on the topic of accreditation and quality in medical laboratories.
By organizing regular professional meetings, seminars and workshops, we ensure continuing professional education for all of our members (including technicians, engineers and specialists). In close cooperation with the Croatian Society for Medical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine and with EFLM our society has regularly organized EFLM Continuing Postgraduate Course in Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine in Dubrovnik.
Considering the achieved equivalent standard of education since 1994 and EC4/EFLM registration, Slovenian specialists in medical biochemistry can also obtain the title of European Specialist in Laboratory Medicine (EuSpLM).
According to latest and actual efforts of EFLM/EC4 and our profession to become one of the automatic regulated profession in EU through revision of Directive for professional qualification 2005/36, we have achieved, as the first of 28 EC4 countries, the important and necessary confirmation and signature from our government for agreement and acceptance of European Common training Framework of specialist education for our profession in Slovenia.
In an effort, to increase the visibility of our profession, in 2014 SZKKLM, for the first time, organized the Open Day of Slovenian Clinical Laboratories, marking 2 October, the Slovenian Day of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine.
Laboratories throughout Slovenia opened their doors to the wider public and organized guided tours. Patients, journalists and other health professionals were invited to the laboratories, where they were shown our working environment and diagnostic procedures.
The importance of our work in the health care field was presented, as well as the difficulties we are facing in our daily work.
On this occasion, we have also issued a common notice about the event in the form of a poster and the brochure that represents our profession and is from now on available for the patients and visitors in all clinical chemistry laboratories in Slovenia. These activities were extensively promoted in different media (TV broadcasts and news programs, newspapers, radio), at the national level and on local levels as well. The Open Day was warmly welcomed publicly and was well attended. Thus, it is clear that it will assist with the better recognition of our profession whitin our country and will undoubtedly become one of a traditional event on our “Day of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine”."

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