APFCB Laboratory Medicine Case Contest

Dear Laboratory Medicine fellows of Asia Pacific,

To show the clinical significance of laboratory medicine and encourage all the laboratory professionals in the Asia-Pacific region to pay more attention to special cases in routine work, the "APFCB Laboratory Medicine Case Contest", organized by APFCB (the Asia Pacific Federation for Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine) and Mindray is starting in August. This event is themed "Value of Laboratory Medicine: Resolve Clinical Challenges ". The winning cases will be presented online and discussed by the case review committee. We welcome submissions from a range of perspectives by laboratory professionals.

APFCB (the Asia Pacific Federation for Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine)

Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co., Ltd

Chair: Dr. Tony Badrick (President of APFCB)

Executive Chair: Prof. Cui Wei (Chair of the APFCB Education Committee)

Case review Committee: APFCB and Representatives of member societies

The contest is limited to Asia-Pacific region but open to all laboratory professionals, no matter technicians, pathologists, or doctors.

The overall process of the contest is composed of three parts. The first round is only a written case report, the second round is a video case presentation. And the third round is an online presentation and Q&A.

Content of written case report

1. The participant is required to submit a clinical case report which describes an untypical, misdiagnosed, special or rare case that received a definitive diagnosis or successful treatment. For these cases, the participant should explain and analyze in detail the laboratory plays an important role in various facets of patient management. Meanwhile, the participant can share his experience obtained during daily work which can be helpful to improve the work efficiency of laboratory professionals and to improve the total laboratory quality.
2. The subject of clinical cases should be limited to biochemistry, immunology, hematology, hemostasis, urinalysis, and microbiology fields.
3. These clinical cases must not be previously published in the legitimate journals.
4. A standard template/structure will be provided for the participants, not only font, spacing, alignment, and headers, but also the structure. Four sections should be included in the report: "Case Introduction, Case Details, Case Analysis, and an Executive Summary". The Case Details section must include the main medical history, positive test results, negative test results that are helpful for diagnosis, and the diagnosis and treatment process.
5. There is a word count limitation. The total word count should be less than 1,500 words (by Microsoft Word).

Video Case presentation

1. A standard template of video background and a video recorder will be provided for the second-round winners to record the videos.
2. The face of the presenter should appear in the PPT video.
3. The time of each video should be limited to 6 - 8 minutes.

First round of the contest

Please submit your written case in a Word document (in English). You must send your case by email to duanshani@gmail.com before Sep 30. The email should come in a subject that reads: country+name of the case + name of the participant.

The scoring criteria are defined as follows:

Second round of the contest

Participants who are selected for the second round should present their case in a 6 to 8-minute long video. The video should be sent by email to: duanshani@gmail.com before Nov 10. The email should come in a subject that reads: country+name of the case + name of the participant.

The scoring criteria are defined as follows:

Third round – online finals

For 10 winners from the second round, each of them will have 10 minutes to play a video, 5 minutes for Q&A and scoring. The total time for each winner is limited to15 minutes. The overall time of online competition and award ceremony should be within 3 hours.

Contest agenda

Awards