Nov 10, 2009
Amrita School of Medicine, Kochi
ACBICON – 2009, the National Conference of Association of Clinical Biochemists of India was conducted at the Amrita Health Sciences Campus, during November 5-7, 2009.
Over 1200 delegates attended the scientific proceedings. This was significant given the fact that last year’s conference at Kolkatta was attended only by about 600 delegates.
This year, all states of India were represented. In addition, there were 30 international speakers. There were over 100 invited lectures and 400 poster presentations.
A total of 15 poster awards were given. Of these, Amrita received 4 awards. Mr. Narayanan MP, Ms. Mrudula and Ms. Anuja, PhD / MSc students of the Dept of Biochemistry and Mr. Kannappan, MBBS student, won these best poster awards.
Mr Sukhes Mukherjee won the Sita Devi Award for best original paper and Ms. Minu Sara Thomas won the Pitabus Jamuna Award for best review paper.
Earlier, the conference was inaugurated by Prof. K.V. Thomas, Union Minister of State for Agriculture. “Clinical biochemistry has played an important role in the medical world especially by helping the poorer sections of society,” he said. “The health care delivery system throughout the world is dependent on laboratory data. Hence we need to work hard to make an efficient system.”
Krishnajyothi Goswami, President of ACBI spoke next. “India has already become a member of the World Association of Societies of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine,” he announced. “We expect that India would likely host the World Congress in 2015.”
ACBI (Association of Clinical Biochemists of India) is a member of the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and the Asia Pacific Federation of Clinical Biochemistry. It has more than 3000 active members in India and abroad. Its annual conferences aim to bring together scientists and clinicians working in the field of clinical chemistry to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and ideas.
Dr. D M Vasudevan was the organizing secretary for this annual conference. “About 5,000 clinical tests are performed daily on 1,200 patients at Amrita,” he told the gathering. “Of all the labs, the clinical biochemistry lab is in the forefront performing routine and special tests.”
The meet concluded with Dr. D M Vasudevan being elected the President of ACBI and Dr. Rajeev Ranjan Sinha, the General Secretary.
Pre-conference professional courses were conducted on November 3 and 4, with participation from nearly 300 delegates.
