SEQC Spanish Society of Laboratory Medicine

Group photo of the members from different countries attending the meeting.

• Representatives of the USA delegation reported on changes in their Editorial Committee and made their contents available to other delegations

The Global Editor’sMeeting of Lab Tests Online (LTO) was held at the headquarters of the Spanish Society of Laboratory Medicine (SEQC^ML) in Barcelona. This website, whose Spanish-language edition is run by SEQC^ML, provides the general public with rigorous information about more than 1,200 analytical tests, as well as news and other resources.

The Global Editor’sMeeting held in Barcelona was attended by representatives from the United States, Poland, Czech Republic, Brazil, Greece, Hungary, and Spain. The Spanish team was made up of Marina Canyelles, Mariano Cortés, Patrocinio Chueca, Ramón Deulofeu, Chelo Fernández, Maite Panadero, Carlos Sisternas, and Laura Valls.

During the meeting, described as "very productive", attendees discussed the new contents to be developed during 2020 in the different international LTO portals. Likewise, new editorial guidelines were created to standardize the content of these international sites, and an update was provided on the status of the different countries' websites.

More detailed reports on the specific cases of Poland and Spain were presented at the meeting. The website of our country is considered a success, as it is one of the ones that attracts the most traffic globally - about 350,000 unique users per month during the year 2019 to date, with an increase of 25% in relation to the previous year.

In this regard, the activities carried out by the Spanish Editorial Committee to invigorate the website were reviewed, such as the eight new articles and 24 resources for patients that were published on the Spanish site throughout 2018 to complement the information provided on clinical analysis. Also mentioned were social media posts, with an increase in Facebook and Twitter users of 83% and 360%, respectively, over the past year. The launch of the photographic contest 'Photography of emotion', aimed at LTO users, was also highlighted.

International Contents

Among other operational and legal aspects, the Global Editor’sMeeting of LTO approved recommendations such as each site submitting to the others a monthly summary of the updates and revisions made. It was also agreed to centralize in Ellen O'Connell, North American representative, all the suggestions for new articles and other contents for the year 2020 that are developed by the North American delegation, and that the USA will share their editorial indications with the other countries.

Also in relation to the USA, their representatives reported on the election of Dr Christine Snozek as Scientific Editorial Director of LTO USA, replacing Robert Dufour, who has been carrying out this task since the beginning of the website.

Documents were also distributed during the meeting with the updated principal editorial recommendations and some examples of standard answers for the most common user questions. Likewise, some criteria were established regarding brand image, such as updating logos and withdrawing references to currently inactive sites.