President

LabMed welcomed our current President, Kath Hayden, in 2023.

'I am delighted and honoured to be President of the Association for Laboratory Medicine.

Throughout my career, LabMed has been a constant, providing what I needed at each stage, beginning with training and a scientific scholarship for my research, and continuing with opportunities to attend scientific meetings and gain experience of committee meetings, and to make those all-important networks with colleagues. For me and many others, it remains a huge resource for scientific, clinical and professional guidance and innovation.

I am immensely excited for our next few years as an organisation. The name change to The Association for Laboratory Medicine that took place in January 2024 allows us to better reflect the breadth of our membership, while increasing the voice of laboratory medicine and pursue our vision to be the leading professional association supporting the practice and development of science in healthcare.

In terms of my priorities during my term, I will continue the collaborative work between LabMed, RCPath and IBMS to address important issues such as direct-to-consumer testing and the proposed UK Conformity Assessed (UKCA) Marking for regulation of medical devices in the UK, and generally raising the profile of laboratory medicine and diagnostics.

I will also continue to work closely with our Green Champions to promote laboratory sustainability and help achieve the NHS Net Zero target. 

Finally, I'm excited to start a new piece of work on membership engagement with our EDI Champions, which will help us develop a more inclusive Association, with benefits that bring value to our members’ professional development, and clear opportunities to get involved in its various activity streams.

I am looking forward to working with you during my presidency.'

- Kath Hayden, President

Interview, LabMedUK23