We welcome new ACB President, Kath Hayden

The ACB warmly welcomes its new President, Kath Hayden.

Read Kath's full statement below.

'I am delighted and honoured to be starting my term as President of the Association for Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine.

Throughout my career, the ACB 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 of the ACB to The Association for Laboratory Medicine will better reflect the breadth of our membership, while acting as an opportunity to increase 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 upcoming priorities, I will continue the collaborative work between the ACB, 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 am also keen to work closely with our Green Champions to promote laboratory sustainability and help achieve the NHS Net Zero target. Soon, I will be speaking at the AACC meeting in Anaheim in July on how appropriate test utilisation drives sustainability - an opportunity to highlight the downstream benefits of removing waste generated from unnecessary or inappropriate testing.

Finally, I'm excited to start a new piece of work on membership engagement in the coming months 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've expanded on my vision and plans for the ACB in the interview below, taken recently at UKMedLab23 in Leeds.

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

- Kath Hayden, ACB President