Pharmacy-based laboratory services: past or future and risk or opportunity?
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Giuseppe Lippi
Abstract
Laboratory diagnostics has undergone relevant changes in organization and complexity, providing new opportunities and risks. Many laboratory tests are now available on compact, easy to operate and reliable instruments, making it possible for facilities other than the traditional clinical laboratories (e.g., pharmacies) to conduct on-site or mobile testing. Ideally, although there is nothing wrong with a rational decentralization, on-site laboratory testing must still be considered a knowledge service, and a core set of competency-quality-consultancy prerequisites should be fulfilled to ensure that results of tests performed outside the clinical laboratories can reach the highest degree of efficiency and clinical efficacy. Pharmacies were historically involved in clinical chemistry. At the European level, the existing pharmacy syllabus gives to students and postgraduates the physiopathological knowledge a good basis for such an evolution.
Clin Chem Lab Med 2008;46:435–6.
©2008 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin New York
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- Reference Values
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- Letters to the Editor
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- IFCC Guidelines and Recommendations
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- Seventh International Symposium on Molecular Diagnostics Graz, Austria, May 22–24, 2008
Articles in the same Issue
- Editorial
- Improving clinicians understanding of lipoprotein sub-fractions through new technology
- Review
- Free fatty acids as a cardiovascular risk factor
- Opinion Papers
- Pharmacy-based laboratory services: past or future and risk or opportunity?
- Standards of practice and uniformity in references style
- Genetics and Molecular Diagnostics
- Glutathione S-transferase variants increase susceptibility for late-onset Alzheimer's disease: association study and relationship with apolipoprotein E ɛ4 allele
- The D allele of angiotensin I-converting enzyme gene insertion/deletion polymorphism is associated with the severity of atherosclerosis
- The apolipoprotein A5 gene –1131T→C polymorphism affects vitamin E plasma concentrations in type 2 diabetic patients
- Cell lines that express membrane-associated DNA for anti-DNA antibody detection
- Certification of reference materials for detection of the human prothrombin gene G20210A sequence variant
- Caspase-3 gene transfected with LIGHT gene: can it be used for therapy of human hepatocellular carcinoma?
- Performance characteristics of a real-time RT-PCR assay for quantification of hepatitis C virus RNA in patients with genotype 1 and 2 infections
- Apolipoprotein E polymorphisms in Mexican patients with coronary artery disease
- A new single nucleotide polymorphism genotyping method based on gap ligase chain reaction and a microsphere detection assay
- General Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
- PROCAM Study: risk prediction for myocardial infarction using microfluidic high-density lipoprotein (HDL) subfractionation is independent of HDL cholesterol
- Evaluation of oxidative stress and inflammation in obese adults with metabolic syndrome
- Sex differences in adenosine deaminase activity of stroke patients
- Serum levels of the osteoprotegerin, receptor activator of nuclear factor κ-B ligand, metalloproteinase-1 (MMP-1) and tissue inhibitors of MMP-1 levels are increased in men 6 months after acute myocardial infarction
- Gelatinase matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 and MMP-9 of the umbilical cord blood in preeclampsia
- Association between plasma alkaline phosphatase and C-reactive protein in Hong Kong Chinese
- Carbonylation of platelet proteins occurs as consequence of oxidative stress and thrombin activation, and is stimulated by ageing and type 2 diabetes
- An automated assay of urinary alanine aminopeptidase activity
- Non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels and recent involuntary weight gain among asymptomatic female subjects
- Reference Values
- Reference intervals for circulating angiogenic cytokines
- Hematological parameters in preterm infants from birth to 16 weeks of age with reference to iron balance
- Influence of hydroxyethyl starch (6% HES 130/0.4) administration on hematology and clinical chemistry parameters
- Letters to the Editor
- Eosinophilic cationic protein in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of lung transplant patients
- Simple human error in data reading and expression in clinical chemistry
- Reply to Dr. Park's letter
- IFCC Guidelines and Recommendations
- Enzymatic assays for creatinine: time for action
- Implementation of standardization of HbA1c measurement Summary of the meeting with manufacturers held in Milan, Italy, December 12, 2007
- Abstracts
- 3rd International Conference on Dipeptidyl Peptidase and Related Proteins Antwerp, Belgium, April 23–25, 2008
- Seventh International Symposium on Molecular Diagnostics Graz, Austria, May 22–24, 2008