The Association for Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine

The Association for Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine was established in 1953 . ACB is the professional body dedicated to the practice and promotion of clinical science. The Association has medicxal and non-medical members in all major healthcare laboratories, in many university departments and in several commercial companies. ACB is based in the United Kingdom. The Association has medical and non-medical members in all major UK healthcare laboratories, in many university departments and in several commercial companies involved in healthcare. The links with its Corporate Members lead to a fruitful relationship with the clinical diagnostics industry. The Association for Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine (ACB) Focused on supermarket health checks, health conditions and disease at the Annual Scientific Meeting. During the lifetime of the Association there have been many extraordinarily rapid, fundamental and widespread changes in all areas of laboratory medicine, particularly in clinical biochemistry. The introduction of new technologies has led to profound changes in the way laboratories work. Clinical needs have altered, and new methods of treatment requiring close biochemical monitoring have become commonplace. In most countries throughout the world there have been major changes in methods of delivering health care, and in the United Kingdom multiple reorganisations of the National Health Service (NHS) have affected all who work in it. There have been increasing financial pressures to improve cost effectiveness in all areas of medicine, with clinical biochemistry often being regarded as a soft target for cost-cutting. consequently it is not surprising that the laboratories, staff and equipment of today bear little resemblance to those of 40 years. Inevitably the ACB has been deeply involved in and affected by these changes. The Association of Clinical Biochemists came into being in an age when the application of chemical principles to the study of human disease - a concept with a long scientific pedigree - was beginning to assume the status of a major component of the armamentarium of scientific medicine that it now enjoys. the Association contributed fully to the development of Clinical Biochemistry as an established clinical and scientific discipline, widening the horizons and increasing its impact on healthcare, to the benefit of medical practitioners and their patients. It assisted in this development through its support of the personal contributions of its members, and through its collective contributions to the establishment of high standards of education, training and practice.