CACB Board Report
Submitted by Valerie Olteanu, Head Office, Board Meeting Recorder
The in-person 2nd Meeting of the 2025-2026 CACB Board was held in Toronto on November 15, 2025. The following is a summary of the discussion.
Chair’s Report – Dr. Dana Nyholt
The Chair and Head Office will meet every two months going forward to help progress Board tasks. An open invitation will be extended to CACB Board members to attend these meetings.
The CACB-OCQ Harmonization Committee plans to meet in Spring 2026.
Secretary’s Report – Dr. Kun-Young Sohn (presented by Dr. Daniel Beriault)
As of November 15, 2025, CACB has a total of 236 members: 4 Founding Fellows, 168 Fellows, and 64 Emeritus Fellows. There are only a few renewals pending.
Treasurer’s Report – Dr. Saranya Arnoldo
The financial statements were reviewed, and CACB remains in overall good standing.
Certification Committee – Dr. Felix Leung
With Dana Nyholt ending her term on the Certification Committee, Michelle Parker, Alberta Precision Labs, Edmonton, joins, bringing the total of members to 7.
2025 Oral Exams
Seven candidates challenged the 2025 Oral Examinations – 3 new CACB-trained candidates, 1 repeat CACB-trained candidate, 3 via Route 4 – with six candidates passing. Post-exam surveys were administered to candidates sitting the oral exam for the first time, and the feedback was positive overall.
2025 Written Exams
Six candidates challenged the 2025 Written Examination – 5 new CACB-trained candidates, 1 repeat CACB-trained candidate, who had undergone remedial training – with three candidates passing. The long answer sections were developed in conjunction with Karim Benkirane from OCQ as per the CACB-OCQ Harmonization Agreement.
The Committee is actively preparing multiple-choice questions for the written exam, and it is hoped these can be implemented in November 2026. Training programs and trainees will be kept informed of progress through the Training Program Accreditation Committee (TPAC).
Other projects the Certification Committee is looking at include an appeals policy, an accommodations policy, and updating information on the CSCC website to increase transparency for exam candidates.
Credentials Committee – Dr. Marie-Hélène Levesque
Since July 2025, one Certification application (University of Alberta) was received and approved. Seven Fellowship applications were approved: 3 under Route 1 (CACB certification), 1 under Route 2 (OCQ certification) and 3 under Route 4 (DABCC certification).
Maintenance of Competence (MOC) Committee – Dr. Ihssan Bouhtiauy
Five meetings have been accredited so far in 2025:
- Alberta Society for Human Toxicology (ASHT) annual meeting, Canmore, Alberta, March 7-8
- 45ième Session de Formation Continue de l’Association des Biochimistes Cliniques du Québec (ABCQ), Magog, QC, May 14-16
- Canada Symposium, 2025 Joint ADLM-CSCC Conference, Chicago, IL, July 28, 2025
- SQBC Annual Scientific Meeting, Oct 7-10
- Alberta Society of Clinical Chemists (ASCC) Annual General Meeting, Oct 18
- Ontario Society of Clinical Chemists (OSCC) Annual Scientific Meeting, Oct 23-24
The MOC Committee is still looking to recruit a new member who is bilingual in both English and French, a special need for the accreditation of the SQBC and ABCQ Annual Conferences (the information submitted is in French). Anyone interested, please reach out to Head Office (info@cscc-sccc.ca).
Training Program Accreditation Committee (TPAC) – Dr. Vilte Barakauskas
TPAC is looking to add a member at large to the committee in early Spring 2026. A member-at-large position description has been created, and the process of selection will be formally included in the TPAC Terms of Reference.
The preliminary site visit questionnaire has been reorganized and clarified to better explain the purpose of certain questions to the assessors and the training programs.
The Board approved the recommendation that TPAC set up a subcommittee to develop Accreditation Standards, which would ensure training programs and assessors have clear and consistent expectations and standards to refer to for training site accreditations.
The Board agreed timelines for the implementation of the revised syllabus as follows:
| Time | Action |
| Nov/Dec 2025: | Approval of revised syllabus required by CACB Board and OCQ Board |
| January 2026: | Publication date |
| July 2027: | Full implementation (accreditations use the revised syllabus from now on) |
| Fall 2028: | First certifications with the new syllabus |
Nominations and Awards Committee – Dr. Daniel Beriault
The call for nominations for the 2026 CACB award was circulated, with a deadline of November 30, 2025. A recipient has been selected and will be announced in the March 2026 issue of the CSCC News.
Dr. Felix Leung takes over as Certification Committee chair and Dr. Isolde Seiden Long takes over the temporary board position – Chair of Ethics/Code of Conduct Task Force.