Abstract
To: Our friends at ALA (Association of Laboratory Automation) and participants in Lab Automation 1999
Re: Invitation to IFCC-WorldLab'99
Dear Friends,
It's a great honor for me to send all of you our heartfelt invitation to take part in the world Congress of Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine that will take place in Firenze (Florence, Italy) from 6 through 11 June 1999. The congress will be combined with the European Congress, the 31st Italian Congress, and the 1st International Congress of Clinical Molecular Biology. As you know, we have joined these events under the rubric “IFCC-WorldLab.”
There are several important reasons why you should not miss this unique opportunity. I will leave out the mere reasons of tourism that ought to receive first mention, considering the breathtaking beauty of the city and the surrounding area. The reasons I want to cite are those that relate to our field and, especially, to the important role that laboratory automation will play in this convention. As you know, the ALA is officially participating in the congress by providing major support for the program that provides scholarships to young scientists from less advantaged countries. In addition, the ALA is organizing some specific congress sessions.
Furthermore, several of the 13 satellite meetings surrounding the main event in days immediately preceding and following it will focus on advanced technologies and on automation. I am deeply convinced that some of our friends showed striking prescience when they founded the ALA a few years ago. But I am equally convinced of the need to maintain continued close ties among the associations that have historically represented laboratory medicine, starting with the IFCC. On the threshold of the new millennium, no truly advanced program in laboratory medicine, like the one the IFCC is presenting at WorldLab, can be conceived without the broadest participation of experts in automation, advanced information technology, robotics, and so forth.
IFCC-WorldLab'99 will be a vast showcase for European health care, which has some distinctive features and, especially in terms of automation, major differences from the health sector in the United States and Japan.
I look forward to seeing you in Firenze.
Pierangelo Bonini
IFCC-WorldLab'99 President
Prof. Pierangelo Bonini Laboratory Medicine Dept. Istituto Scientifico H San Raffaele Via Olgettina, 60 20132 Milano, Italy
