Year: 2003
Type: article
Abstract: I NTRODUCTI ONEvidence based medicine has become accepted practice in the provision of modern healthcare.However, the approach has had limited impact on laboratory medicine compared with that in other clinical disciplines.The appropriate use of diagnostic tools in clinical decision-making is of crucial importance, as further management of patients depends on it.But many diagnostic investigations have never been subjected to systematic evaluation using modern standards of clinical epidemiology, especially when compared with the rigorous approval of therapeutic drugs.Furthermore, despite the remarkable achievements in the analytical performance of tests, less attention has been paid to outcomes research to evaluate the diagnostic impact and clinical utility of laboratory investigations (1).The lack of good quality research in the field contributes not only to inappropriate utilisation of laboratory services, which might harm patients, but also to wasting significant resources.Clinical laboratories may therefore be seen by some managers as cost centres, rather than -what they should be -resource centres.Patients and society expect physicians to base their approach to any type of clinical problem on informed diagnostic reasoning.Informed diagnostics means that clinicians understand and readily apply the principles of diagnostic decision making, which include an estimate of the pre-test probability/prevalence of diseases and information about the performance characteristics and discriminatory power of the applied investigations.Interpretation of results is also concerned with supporting informed clinical decisions by synthesizing and converting analytical and research information to knowledge that, together with clinical experience and patients' preferences, can be transformed to the wisdom needed in making individual choices for patients (2).If laboratory medicine professionals wish to offer high quality, efficacious and effective services, it is important that the pre-analytical, analytical, and post-analytical phases of the diagnostic process are based, as far as possible, on the best available scientific evidence.In this paper, I would like to discuss l the definition and aims of evidence-based laboratory medicine (EBLM), l what kind of evidence we need, l what kind of evidence we have in laboratory medicine, l and what we can do about improving the current situation. DEFI NI TI ON AND AI MS OF EVI DENCE-BASED LABORATORY MEDI CI NEEvidence-Based Medicine (EBM) needs to be constantly promoted because medicine based on tradition, false conviction, superstition, or unjustified authority, has not yet disappeared, and will perhaps exist as long as Page 141 eJIFCC2003Vol14No3pp141-151
Source: PubMed Central
Author: Andrea Rita Horvath
Institution: University of Szeged
Language: English
Subfield: Medical Laboratory Technology
Field: Health Professions
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2188940051