Clinical chemistry trainee council: a new journal initiative.

Clinical Chemistry is pleased to announce the launching of a new initiative, called the “Clinical Chemistry Trainee Council,” that will provide educational materials to trainees in clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine. This program combines the Journal’s commitment to education and its mission to disseminate information to laboratory scientists throughout the world. In the past 3 years, considerable efforts have been exerted by the editors of Clinical Chemistry to build a solid educational program; the publication of Reviews, MiniReviews, Perspectives, Clinical Case Studies, Q&A articles, and the Clinical Chemistry Guide to Scientific Writing are examples of this commitment. Through our Reaching Out to the World program, articles from the Journal have been translated into 15 languages: The 143 articles translated into Chinese reach more than 210 000 laboratory scientists in that country, and those translated into Arabic are disseminated by the WHO to physicians and scientists in 24 countries. In May 2011, phase I of the Trainee Council initiative will be launched. It will target approximately 5000 doctoral-level trainees in clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine in 24 countries. As a gift from the Journal, CDs containing 35 Clinical Case Studies and the full series of articles in the Clinical Chemistry Guide to Scientific Writing will be distributed to the trainees in the form of 2 electronic books by local and national societies or key individuals in these countries. Membership in the Council is free, and a website has been designed specifically for members of the Council to give them access to future Clinical Case Studies, Q&A articles, and the Clinical Chemistry podcast series. Over the last 2 years, the journal has produced more than 70 podcasts, which have been downloaded more than 225 000 times. A series of regularly scheduled webcasts (lectures by leading international scientists) and the Pearls of Laboratory Medicine series (presentations of 10 –15 min about a laboratory test) will also be available on the website. Communications between Council members will be facilitated via CouncilChat (a blog directed by 6 junior faculty members from the US, Belgium, Greece, China, and Indonesia). This initiative has been funded by unrestricted educational grants from the AACC, the Department of Laboratory Medicine at Children’s Hospital Boston, and the Beckman Coulter Foundation. The expansion of this program (phase II) in the summer of 2011 to include India will make these educational materials available to the approximately 2000 doctoral-level trainees in clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine in that country. In late 2011, phase III (in Spanish) will be launched to target Spain and Latin America with the exception of Brazil. Phase IV (in Russian) will be launched in early 2012, and phase V (in Chinese) will be launched in late 2012. In the near future we hope to produce Arabic and Portuguese versions of the Council. We realize that trainees are the future of our profession and believe it is important for the Journal to reach out to them early in their careers, providing them with useful information and developing a relationship with them. We sincerely hope that they will find this program useful, grow to appreciate the value of the Journal in their professional lives, and contribute intellectually to it.