Laboratory Tests

Laboratory services form an essential component of health services. They share the same goal with all other components of health services, which is to promote health and to prevent disease. An important function of the laboratory services is to provide accurate laboratory tests. Laboratory tests are specific procedures that are conducted on patients or specimens obtained from patients to reveal information concerning their health status. These tests constitute a tool that contributes to provision of accurate information leading to proper diagnosis and correct identification of diseases, monitoring the treatment of patients and their response to it, investigating epidemics and the spread of infectious diseases, establishing a disease prognosis, and deciding disease prevention priorities. Laboratory tests can assist in answering important questions regarding the health of the individual such as what is cause of the disease? How severe is it? Was it correctly diagnosed? The role of laboratory tests as a main contributor to the health of the population should never be underestimated.

The laboratory team consisting of laboratory technicians, technologists, and specialists should work as a cohesive unit and apply their knowledge and skills to provide the best possible services to the public, namely accurate and timely laboratory test results. The laboratory team should be suitably qualified for conducting the requested tasks, provided with continuous motivation including continuing education and career development, and should adopt a professional code of conduct that stresses the importance of ethics in such a sensitive career. This raises issues such as confidentiality of laboratory test results and safety of patients. Another important aspect of laboratory practice is laboratory safety. Ensuring the well-being of the laboratory team and prevention of all types of injuries can be achieved by several measures. Following established safety rules, conducting annual safety reviews, and raising the awareness of the laboratory staff about maintaining and promoting a safe work environment are among the most important measures. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus, and hepatitis C virus constitute the main hazardous biological exposures. Exposure to toxic chemicals represents another threat to the well being of laboratory workers, and developing biological and chemical exposure plans is required of all laboratories.

Laboratory tests can assist in answering important questions regarding the health of the individual.

The laboratory tests are usually conducted in various types of laboratories, varying in size, types of tests performed, level of specialization, and affiliation to different healthcare providers. They start from simple, basic laboratories in physicians’ clinics, to com-munity-based primary healthcare laboratories, to dis-trict-level multidepartmental laboratories, and finally to central comprehensive laboratories and national reference laboratories. Some laboratories conduct few essential tests such as a complete blood count (CBC), urinalysis, stool examination, and basic biochemistry (e.g., fasting blood sugar and cholesterol). Whereas others conduct much more specialized tests, which may require the use of advanced methodologies and technologies including advance molecular pathology techniques such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR), cytogenetics, and hybridization techniques. Examples of tests that are conducted using advanced methods are tests used for diagnosing infectious diseases and genetic disorders. These laboratories can [Page 993]be privately owned, affiliated with large national or regional companies, affiliated with nongovernmental organizations, or constitute a part of governmental health services.

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