Evidence-based laboratory medicine tests

Marshall DA, O Brien BJ. Economic evaluation of diagnostic tests. In Price CP and Christenson RH, eds. Evidence-based laboratory medicine from principles to outcomes. Washington DC AACC Press, 2003 159-86. 

Clinical Chemistry, Laboratory Medicine, and Evidence-Based Laboratory Medicine In this chapter, we review the new influences on clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine from the fields of cfinical epidemiology and evidence-based medicine (EBM). Cfinical epidemiologists have developed study designs to quantify the diagnostic accuracy of the tests developed in laboratory medicine, and study methods to evaluate the effect and value of laboratory testing in healthcare. Practitioners of EBM focus on use of the best available evidence from such well-designed studies in the care of individual patients. EBM rephrases problems in the clinical care of patients as structured clinical questions, looks for the available evidence, evaluates the quality of cfinical studies, evaluates the clinical implications of the results, and provides tools to help clinicians optimally use those results in the care of individual patients. 

It is hopefully clear from the foregoing discussion that the principles of evidence-based laboratory medicine can underpin the way in which laboratory medicine is practiced, from the discovery of a new diagnostic test through to its application in routine patient care. The principles provide the logic on which aU of the elements of practice are founded. The tools of evidence-based laboratory medicine provide the means of delivering the highest quality of service in meeting the needs of patients and the healthcare professionals who serve them. The application of evidence-based practice is far more complex in the case of laboratory medicine than in the major area in which such principles have previously been applied, namely the pharmaceutical intervention. 

Christenson RH, Duh S-H, Price CP. Identifying the question the laboratory s role in testing provisional assumptions aimed at improving patient outcomes. In Price CP and Christenson RH (editors). Evidence-Based Laboratory Medicine from principles to outcomes. AACC Press, Washington, 2003 21-37. 

PoinTof-Care Testing Introduction to Laboratory Medicine and Evidence-Based Laboratory Medicine Introduction to Laboratory Medicine and Evidence-Based Laboratory Medicine Appendix Kidney Function Tests Kidney Disease... 

Nichols JH, et al. Executive summary. The National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry Laboratory Medicine Practice Guideline evidence-based practice for point-of-care testing. Clin ChimActa 2007 379 14-28. 

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