Laboratory medicine documentation

Table 1,2,3, and 4, normal laboratory values.17 ACP Medicine 2005 available at http //online.statref.com/UserLogin. aspx 6dd=48 docid=2681 Path=/document.aspx Product=StatRef Produc tID=48 accessed November 21, 2005. 

Official standards are absolutely necessary to ensure the quality, reliability, and homogeneity of herbal products for consumers. Standardized products are paramount to those in healthcare planning to conduct clinical research with these products. Independent laboratories and university-affiliated research reports have documented the considerable variation that exists in terms of quality and reliability in these products. Abroad, the ESCOP, composed of manufacturers of herbal medicines and herbal associations, is working with European research groups to develop quality-control standards for the production of natural products. This committee is developing monographs for incorporation into such references as the British Herbal Pharmacopoeia and the British Herbal Compendium. 

Unfortunately, the GCP guidelines are not always applied to other biomedical research and rarely to independent studies on marketed products initiated by clinicians without support from the manufacturer. There is still a double standard in therapeutic research and therefore in published papers arising from them. Editors and reviewers do not see the full documentation of non-sponsored biomedical research, whereas the regulatory authorities and their expert advisers will expect to see all data in the support of new medicines. The extent of the differences in standards is recognised when a potential investigating site is visited and one realises that there are no SOPs, that documentation of laboratory procedures is suboptimal and that staff are not properly trained. These facets are mentioned because the training that clinicians, scientists and technicians receive from company-based staff before and during a sponsored clinical trial adds considerably to the quality standards. 

Accredited Laboratories for Doping Control Analysis, http //www.wada-ama.org/ Documents/Science Medicine/Anti-Doping Laboratories/WADA Accredited Laboratories EN.pdf. Accessed 10 May 2012... 

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