Clinical pathology services: remapping our strategic itinerary
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Norbert Blanckaert
Abstract
Both technological advances and economic drivers have led to major changes in clinical laboratories across the world, with vastly improved testing productivity. However, the production process capability advances have far outpaced the clinical pathologists' success in assuring optimal test utilization and interpretation. While productivity of ‘commodity’ testing increases, our healthcare value productivity decreases. Such developments constitute a serious threat to our clinical pathology specialty, not only because pathologists may lose direct control of the commodity testing production activities, but also because the present evolution exposes a failure of our core clinical activities, the pathologist's knowledge processes that translate ‘commodity’ results into medical outcomes optimization. At a time when a revolution in health care organization is inescapable in the years ahead, clinical pathology must proceed from a merely reactive strategy (to fulfill the ‘more with less’ demands) to a proactive strategy where we build excellence and visibility in knowledge services on a strong foothold of operational excellence. Based on a Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats analysis, we argue that clinical pathology should safeguard and expand its healthcare value productivity by assuming leadership in building integrated laboratory services networks. We also suggest that the core knowledge processes deserve a system approach, for example, by applying a risk-based quality management system.
Clin Chem Lab Med 2010;48:919–25.
©2010 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin New York
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- HIGHLIGHT: LABORATORY DIAGNOSTICS IN THE THIRD MILLENIUM: WHERE, HOW AND WHY
- Editorial
- Foreword
- Reviews
- Roots, development and future directions of laboratory medicine
- The “hospital central laboratory”: automation, integration and clinical usefulness
- Clinical pathology services: remapping our strategic itinerary
- Stat laboratory testing: integration or autonomy?
- Point-of-care testing in critical care: the clinician's point of view
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- Laboratory testing in pharmacies
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- Evaluating laboratory diagnostic tests and translational research
- Integrated diagnostics: a conceptual framework with examples
- General Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
- The European Register of Specialists in Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine: Guide to the Register, Version 3-2010
- The prevalence of preanalytical errors in a Croatian ISO 15189 accredited laboratory
- Indicators and quality specifications for strategic and support processes related to the clinical laboratory: four years' experience
- SKML-Quality Mark for point-of-care test (POCT) glucose meters and glucose meters for home-use
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- Clinical implication of plasma neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) concentrations in patients with advanced carotid atherosclerosis
- Evaluation of the TEST 1 erythrocyte sedimentation rate system and intra- and inter-laboratory quality control using new latex control materials
- Letter to the Editor
- Phlebotomy site haemolysis rates vary inversely with workload
Articles in the same Issue
- HIGHLIGHT: LABORATORY DIAGNOSTICS IN THE THIRD MILLENIUM: WHERE, HOW AND WHY
- Editorial
- Foreword
- Reviews
- Roots, development and future directions of laboratory medicine
- The “hospital central laboratory”: automation, integration and clinical usefulness
- Clinical pathology services: remapping our strategic itinerary
- Stat laboratory testing: integration or autonomy?
- Point-of-care testing in critical care: the clinician's point of view
- Reproductive-endocrine point-of-care testing: current status and limitations
- Laboratory testing in pharmacies
- Laboratory testing during critical care transport: point-of-care testing in air ambulances
- Self-monitoring of blood glucose with a focus on analytical quality: an overview
- Molecular diagnostics: between chips and customized medicine
- Evaluating laboratory diagnostic tests and translational research
- Integrated diagnostics: a conceptual framework with examples
- General Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
- The European Register of Specialists in Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine: Guide to the Register, Version 3-2010
- The prevalence of preanalytical errors in a Croatian ISO 15189 accredited laboratory
- Indicators and quality specifications for strategic and support processes related to the clinical laboratory: four years' experience
- SKML-Quality Mark for point-of-care test (POCT) glucose meters and glucose meters for home-use
- PATHFAST™ NT-proBNP (N-terminal-pro B type natriuretic peptide): a multicenter evaluation of a new point-of-care assay
- Clinical implication of plasma neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) concentrations in patients with advanced carotid atherosclerosis
- Evaluation of the TEST 1 erythrocyte sedimentation rate system and intra- and inter-laboratory quality control using new latex control materials
- Letter to the Editor
- Phlebotomy site haemolysis rates vary inversely with workload
