Impressive, remarkable, fantastic or exciting…
This is just a brief selection of the superlatives with which the presidents of the European and International Federation of Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC-EFLM) lured visitors to this year’s professional program of the Worldlab EuroMedLab Rome 2023 conference. The fact that they chose the futuristic congress center La Nuvola in Rome as the venue was a plus for them. They chose this place in collaboration with the SIBioC (Italian Society for Clinical Biochemistry and Clinical Molecular Diagnostics).
One of the most important events in the field of laboratory medicine was thus a great attraction not only for scientists, laboratory specialists, physicians or company representatives, but also for lovers of historical monuments and gourmets in one. Of course, we could not miss such an opportunity and we took our participation in the congress very actively.
Right under “The Cloud”
Over the course of five days, this year’s event offered a number of lectures, symposiums, presentations of the latest advances in clinical practice and science, including a rich poster section and exhibition of companies. Our booth was placed in the very center of the glass structure of the congress center building, directly under the “floating cloud”, which houses the auditorium for 8,000 visitors. Here, we presented our innovative IVD solutions in the form of CLIA platform or Microblot Array to visitors from 114 countries, and at the same time we also showed another portfolio of diagnostic kits for various applications in the fields of autoimmune and infectious diseases or endocrinology.
A flyer placed in conference bags was also used as a teaser of our CLIA technology, which guided interested parties directly to our stand. The series of planned meetings with distribution companies was thus extended to meetings with laboratory representatives.
“We were also pleased by the interest of potential end users, who, for example, used the opportunity to evaluate the test on the Microblot–Array Reader,” describes Zuzana Petříčková, product specialist at TestLine. “Participation in such prestigious conferences actively contributes to the fact that experts take notice of our diagnostic kits and also helps us to get closer to the laboratories.”
The new MxA biomarker passed the expert jury
The congress also brought an opportunity for active participation through posters, which colleagues from BioVendor R&D took advantage of. They presented the new biomarker Myxovirus resistance protein A (MxA) to the professional public, together with very good results of real data from comparative measurements of clinical samples by CLIA, ELISA and Lateral Flow Test methods. “MxA has the potential to provide important clinical information in situations where rapid differentiation between viral and bacterial infections is essential for appropriate treatment, therefore it may be useful for clinical diagnosis,” explains Eva Bače, head of the CLIA development department from BioVendor R&D, who is also the co-author of the poster. Its full text is long-term available via the congress application or directly in a special edition of the Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM) journal.
Topics that move the world of diagnostics
The professional program of the congress was composed of sections dedicated not only to clinical areas such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes or sepsis, but also to current multidisciplinary topics. There were lectures focused on the pre-analytical processing of samples and its effect on the result of measuring biomarkers or the causes of interferences and reducing their influence within laboratory measurements.
The discussed topics of the newer microRNA field or very attractive possibilities of application and use of artificial intelligence in laboratory medicine were also beneficial. “From the composition of the conference program, it was clear that the IFCC organization gives high priority to the topics of harmonization in laboratory medicine and solutions to the standardization of biomarker measurement results together with quality. This topic was integrated in many sections of the congress including a comprehensive separate lecture,” explains Eva Bače and further says: “Although the topic of neurodegenerative diseases was not left out during the congress, the participants showed such great interest in the very last lecture dedicated to diagnosis of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, presented by recognized expert K. Blennow, that the organizers had to double the capacity of the lecture hall.”
See you in Brussels in two years
The next EuroMedLab will take place in two years in Brussels at the site of the 1958 World’s Fair, which was inspired by the motto "A world for a better life for mankind". Let’s hope that the organizers will be able to fulfill this intention and organize another equally significant event.
