CRB Newsletter, Vol. 3, No. 1

Newsletter

Special Interest Group of the American Association of Bioanalysts (AAB)
906 Olive Street, Suite 1200, Saint Louis, MO 63101-1448
Phone: (314)241-1445 • Fax: (314)241-1449 Email: crb-aab@aab.org • Website: www.aab.org

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Hello peers,

Happy New Year and I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday Season. Now that the holidays are over and the everyday routine is once again upon us, you probably are longing for something exciting to look forward to. I know I always do.

Well, I have good news for all of you: the annual CRB educational meeting is coming up in less than 4 months and it is going to be just as good as Christmas -- we have an exciting program planned for you!

Bill Boone is our program chair this year. Please see his report in this newsletter about the speakers and topics.

For those of us who want to know more about our professional organization, our president Mark Dow provided an article that explains the structure and functionality of AAB and CRB.

Grace Centola wrote a nice overview of our latest certification examinations and some other issues pertaining to her committee.  I want to add my voice to her call for your participation in question-writing efforts by CRB. This is your chance to improve upon ABB examinations. Please consider participating in this important activity, which, from my personal experience, is also intellectually stimulating and very satisfying.

Dean Morbeck reported on some news from the 2012 ASRM annual meeting. As always, many thanks to Dean for taking the time and for summarizing important science news for our membership.

Our legislative committee chair Stan Harris is working hard on researching the personhood movement issue and its potential impact on our profession and our patients.  Please be sure to read his report on this topic as it is the one that hits close to home for all of us.

We are always happy to welcome young professionals to participate in our educational and professional efforts. Erin Fischer has been serving as our secretary for the last two years. I want to thank her for her great service and for the piece she contributed to this issue of the newsletter.

As the chair of the CRB educational committee, I am glad to report on two pieces of good news about the committee’s work so far this year. 

First, we reached an agreement with RBM Online, which is one of the most prestigious publications in our field, to provide access to our members at a fraction of the price of the full subscription – CRB members in good standing can subscribe for RBM Online for an annual fee of $80. This was my Christmas present to myself this year (Yes, I know. This is super-nerdy. But this magazine is so good...). In all seriousness, I encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity as this publication is indeed excellent.

Secondly, the first issue of this newsletter that came out shortly after the annual meeting was very well received by our membership, which is very encouraging to us. We are committed to staying in touch with you using this platform.

We are also working on redesigning the CRB webpage. As always, I will be very grateful for any input from the CRB membership. Please contact me at mgvakharia@fpnc.com with any suggestions you might have.

I can’t wait to see all of you in Las Vegas. Hope you feel the same way.

Until next time,

Marina Gvakharia, M.D., Ph.D., HCLD/ELD(ABB), MT(AAB)
The editor