Scientific Affairs and Clinical Practice

Responds on behalf of the Association on all scientific matters relevant to laboratory medicine. The Committee strives to encourage best clinical practice within the profession.

The Committee liaises on relevant scientific issues and the importance of laboratory medicine to patient management and direct patient care with the healthcare community and other external bodies, including:

• Regulatory Authorities
• National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE)
• Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN)
• Royal College of Pathologists
• European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFLM)
• International Federation for Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC)

The Committee oversees Specialist Interest Groups which publish guidance and reviews on specific topics that need further attention: 

• Paediatric Laboratory Medicine network (PaLMnet) Specialist Interest Group - focuses on the needs of babies and children in respect of core laboratory tests for paediatric metabolic diseases.

• Pre Analytical Phase Specialist Interest Group - focuses on ensuring quality and standardisation in the preanalytical phase.

• Liquid-Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry Specialist Interest Group - focussed on producing measurement guidelines.

Our Scientific Affairs and Clinical Practice Committee represents the views of our members when liasing on relevant scientific issues and the importance of laboratory medicine to patient management and care with the healthcare community and other external bodies. The Committee is involved with:

• Co-ordinating Association involvement on NICE Guideline Committees shaping future requirements for healthcare delivery in the UK and the role of the laboratory within them.
• Producing best practice guidelines across a range of areas - often in conjunction with other professional bodies.
• Awarding Scientific Development Scholarships to support high quality patient-focussed research undertaken by Association members.
• Facilitating clinical and operational audits, both nationally and locally, to highlight areas of good practice and provide robust evidence to support the adoption of national guidelines and standardisation of testing.

Scientific committee

Clinical sciences reviews sub-committee (CSRC)

Commissions reviews on Clinical Biochemistry topics which are published in the Annals of Clinical Biochemistry or other journals. 

National Audit group sub-committee

Coordinates audit activity in Clinical Biochemistry on a national basis. 

Preanalytics specialist interest group

Pre Analytical Phase Specialist Interest Group - focuses on ensuring quality and standardisation in the preanalytical phase.

Paediatric reference interval group

Patient centric testing & sampling SIG