This edition of the Annals is the ¢rst to bear the new name of the Association: ‘The Association for Clinical Biochemistry’. The change was agreed at the 2005 Annual General Meeting, held in Glasgowon 8 May. The Association, known nationally and internationally as ‘the ACB’, is recognized as the premier specialist society for Clinical Biochemistry in the UK, so why is a change of name deemed appropriate? The ACB was founded in 1953 by a small group of dedicated scientists working, often single-handedly, in hospital laboratories in the UK, not only to provide a forum for the development of the specialty of clinical biochemistry but also to act as a professional negotiating body, an activity now undertaken by the separately constituted Federation of Clinical Scientists (FCS). An excellent account of the early historyof theAssociation can be found in The Association of Clinical Biochemists: The First FortyYears. Since those early days, the ACB has grown from strength to strength and developed into an organizationwith diverse activities and relationships with other organizations. As well as this journal, its publications include theVenture Publications series, CD ROMs, ACB News and, most recently, the LabTestsOnline initiative. All these support the Association’s educational and scienti¢c functions. The ACB has the delegated responsibility to provide Grade A and Higher Specialist Grade B clinical scientist training, and organizes training courses and training days open to all those entering the discipline. Both the Education and Scienti¢c Committees award bursaries and grants to support members to develop their knowledge and experience and to conduct research, and the latter provides expert advice to the government and other bodies on the science underpinning the specialty. Another area which has expanded and achieved international recognition in the past two decades is that of conference organization. The Focus meetings have been an enormous success, and have provided the infrastructure for us to organize two highly successful international meetings -the 1996 ICCC meeting in London and, most recently, EuroMedLab 2005 in Glasgow. The expertise of the ACB in this area has also been used in the organization of collaborative meetings with other bodies, such as AACC and the Dark Report. As well as being a forum for training and continuing medical education, each Focus meeting is the showcase, through its exhibition, for another key aspect of ACB activities: its close relationship with the Diagnostics industry. The interests of those working in clinical laboratories and our colleagues in industry are interrelated, and, at present, we are working closely with our Corporate Members in the public relations initiative ‘Promoting awareness in Laboratory Medicine’ (PaLM). I hope this outline provides a £avour of the breadth of activities under the umbrella of the ACB. Our portfolio is one for the specialty, in the wider arena of medicine, and our membership categories permit inclusivity for all involved or interested in it. As such, the name of theAssociation should re£ect this. A change is not only appropriate but probably belated. The ACB is the UK national member organization of the IFCC, established in 1952 as the International Association of Clinical Biochemists. In 1953, its name was changed to the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry. Fiftytwo years later, the Association has followed the same path. This brings us into line with most of the other national member organizations, including the two co-publishers of the Annals, the Dutch and Japanese Societies. Our new name gives a more accurate description of what the Association is, although I am sure it will still be universally known as theACB.
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Jul 7, 2011
G El-Nimr 
Open Access