In these trying times, I take this opportunity to update you on the planned activities of the MACB for the year 2020. As you may be aware, the MACB in collaboration with IFCC, conducted the first IFCC Advanced Molecular Workshop on 29 – 31 January 2020. However, due to the current Covid-19 situation in the country, MACB activities such as the workshop on Scientific Research and Writing scheduled on 22-23 April 2020 and the Asia Conference on Biomedical Research and Laboratory Medicine (ACBRLM) scheduled on 18-19 August 2020, will be postponed until further notice. Meanwhile, the status of the 30th MACB Conference 2020, scheduled on 29-30 September 2020 is still pending. We will keep you updated from time to time. For further details, please visit https://www.macb.org.my
For your information, the IFCC WorldLab Congress in Seoul is also postponed due to the Coronavirus concerns and worldwide travel restrictions.
On a lighter note, MACB won the bid to host the APFCB Congress 2024. The bid was made at the APFCB Council meeting in Jaipur, India on 17th November 2019. We will be setting up the local organising committee sometime this year.
To help you learn more about the Covid-19, the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC), with the help of Prof. Nader Rifai and Prof. Giusepe Lippi, generated a Learning Lab mini course on COVID-19 along with a short lecture (Pearl). They are available free of charge.
The link for the course is: https://area9lyceum.com/covid19_course/
And for the lecture (Pearl) is: https://www.aacc.org/clinical-chemistry-trainee-council/trainee-council-in-english/pearls-of-laboratory-medicine/2020/coronavirus-disease-2019
Please consider disseminating this information among your colleagues. Let us join our efforts and work together as Malaysians to get through this unfortunate pandemic.
My best wishes to everyone. Take care and stay safe!