There is a meeting of the ACB Executive Committee tomorrow, Thursday 1st November. I can assure mailbase readers that this item will be discussed in detail and addressed as appropriate.
Regards
Steve Goodall
Assistant Secretary
Association for Clinical Biochemistry
>>> David Bullock <[log in to unmask]> 30/10/2007 19:43 >>>
1. I was shocked to see essentially positive coverage of LiverCheck on
the BBC 6 o'clock news tonight, stating that "the NHS is increasingly
turning to self/home testing" and using bowel cancer screening to make
their point [I won't repeat the comment of the Royal Mail manager when
I told him a few years ago that the NHS was going to encourage people
to smear excrement onto paper and pop it in their nearest pillarbox . . .]
and giving a projected self-testing market of £160M per year. Should
the ACB, RCPath, IBMS, BIVDA and friends be making the point that
laboratory professionals produce 70% of the health record MUCH more
cost-efficiently than lashing out a hundred quid or so for 2 simple
enzyme assays of dubious relevance and some colourful explanatory
paperwork? [never minding the quality or accreditation status . . .]
2. Perhaps more worrying in the longer term, the BBC report also
implied that the UK is reconsidering its longstanding outright ban on
non-professional HIV testing (unless you buy on the web, of course).
Presumably this follows the US lead of making HIV a 'waived test' - the
definition of a waived test is of course one where 'it doesn't matter if you
do the test wrong & get the wrong result and/or interpret the result
incorrectly' (HIV? - waaaah!!)
What 'interesting times' we (hopefully) live through . . .
David
PS1: having two of The Eagles on The One Show tonight, they tried
reading some of the 'impenetrable' Hotel California lyrics with an Ulster
accent, thereby rendering "colitas" as 'colitis' and taking Glenn Frey
severely aback ("THAT's something you need to go to the hospital with .
. .")
PS2: individual email enquiries as to the meaning of "FIUY" may receive
an answer
------ACB discussion List Information--------
This is an open discussion list for the academic and clinical
community working in clinical biochemistry.
Please note, archived messages are public and can be viewed
via the internet. Views expressed are those of the individual and
they are responsible for all message content.
ACB Web Site
http://www.acb.org.uk
List Archives
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/ACB-CLIN-CHEM-GEN.html
List Instructions (How to leave etc.)
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/
------ACB discussion List Information--------
This is an open discussion list for the academic and clinical
community working in clinical biochemistry.
Please note, archived messages are public and can be viewed
via the internet. Views expressed are those of the individual and
they are responsible for all message content.
ACB Web Site
http://www.acb.org.uk
List Archives
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/ACB-CLIN-CHEM-GEN.html
List Instructions (How to leave etc.)
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/
|