As a final step in the transition to AACC Academy from the National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry (NACB), Academy fellows starting on January 1, 2018 will have the designation FADLM in place of FACB. AACC Academy President James Ritchie, PhD, DABCC, FADLM/FACB, announced this new designation in November in an email to AACC Academy members and in an AACC Artery post. The new designation more accurately reflects the relationship of the Academy to AACC, according to Ritchie.

Since its founding in 1976 as NACB, AACC Academy has sought to advance laboratory medicine practice. Academy members, who have expertise across all areas of lab medicine, support research, innovation, and best practices to provide better healthcare for patients worldwide.

Membership requirements for both Academy fellows and associate fellows remain the same as under NACB. Fellows must be doctoral-level clinical scientists and must have achieved at least two of the following criteria:

  • at least 5 years’ postdoctoral experience in clinical laboratory science;
  • distinguished achievements in research or education;
  • outstanding contributions to the field of clinical laboratory science.

Associate fellows are doctoral-level AACC members who don’t otherwise meet the criteria for fellows.

An extensive and thoroughly researched AACC Academy laboratory medicine practice guideline on using clinical laboratory tests to monitor drug therapy in pain management patients will be published next month in The Journal of Applied Laboratory Medicine. However, in the future the Academy will be focusing more on creating two- to four-page white paper recommendations, according to Ritchie. The AACC Academy Council—the Academy’s governing body—also is working with the AACC Science and Practice Core Committee on developing guidelines for laboratory test stewardship.

In addition to these practice-supporting initiatives, AACC Academy celebrates excellence in the field through its annual awards, recognizing outstanding contributions to clinical chemistry research and to the profession, excellence in research, and distinguished abstracts at the AACC Annual Scientific Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo As part of AACC’s new governance structure, AACC Academy and the Clinical Laboratory Scientists Council both now have permanent representation on the AACC board of directors.

As Ritchie winds down his service as president of the Academy Council, he “anticipate[s] more exciting things to come for AACC, its Academy, and the field of laboratory medicine.”