About us and our objectives
Different professionals practise clinical biology in the different countries. In most European countries this field dates back to the 1950s where community and hospital pharmacists developed it as an additional activity. It then became a separate discipline taught in schools of pharmacy and medical universities and/or scientific universities.
FIP’s Clinical Biology Section, created in 1972, represents pharmacists, or pharmacy graduates, working in clinical laboratories or in any of the following fields:
- Clinical chemistry
- Haematology
- Immunology
- Microbiology
- Molecular pathology
- Genetic testing
- Laboratory accreditation, certification and quality control,
- Diagnostics
- Laboratory IT and automation.
The Clinical Biology Section (CBS) is the only international structure that represents these pharmacy professionals. Our main objective is to study and maintain the development and the protection of the scientific and professional interests of all pharmacists engaged in clinical biology. We aim to increase international representation of these professionals. If you are a clinical biology pharmacist in any of these fields, or if you have an interest in any of these subjects, join FIP and join us! Click here.
How we work
Our board may consist of honorary presidents, president, secretary, executive members and a treasurer, and is presently as follows:
President Dr Julien Fonsart (France)
Secretary Ms Shaheen Maachi-Benelmouloud (France)
Treasurer Dr Lenira Da Silva Costa (Brazil)
Vice President Dr Marta Garcia Collia (Spain)
Immediate Past President Dr Bernard Poggi (France)
The board is responsible for organising clinical biology sessions during the annual FIP congress. The current statutes of FIP’s CBS were adopted by the FIP Council in 2009. Our secretariat currently consists of the CBS president and secretary.
Contact us at julien.fonsart@aphp.fr.
Activities
At the FIP congress
We hold an annual business meeting open to all members at the World Congress of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. Before and during the congress, we hold several other meetings, collaborating with other sections on sessions, and, depending on the practice of clinical biology in the host country, we organise a visit to a laboratory of interest.
Future activities Our aims for the future are to:
- Expand the network of correspondence between countries where pharmacists practise clinical biology and laboratory medicine;
- Make clinical biology pharmacists all over the world aware of the CBS and welcome them as new members;
- Publish a newsletter to keep members informed of section activities and about the training of biology pharmacists and systems for clinical biology in different countries;
- Maintain contacts with other FIP sections and, together with them and the Board of Pharmaceutical Sciences, plan joint sessions for FIP congresses;
- Study and compare programmes for quality control and problems concerning the possible establishment of laboratories around the world;
- Publish articles so as to inform all pharmacists about clinical biology activities;
- Establish links with international organisations, such as the World Health Organization, the EFLM (European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine), and the IFCC (International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine).
We will be creating different working groups for these projects and welcome any volunteers who can reach these goals. Email cbs@fip.org
Annual report
The CBS annual report is available here.