Abstract:

Laboratory medicine is a medical specialty at the centre of healthcare. Future trends in healthcare indicate increasing dependence on knowledge obtained from diagnostic investigations, meaning that the central role of laboratory medicine will be consolidated. Leaders in laboratory medicine have a professional responsibility to develop the centrality of laboratory medicine in their local healthcare setting in order to derive maximum benefit for patients. The first responsibility of the head of a clinical laboratory is to ensure the provision of continuous quality improvement across a wide range of parameters culminating in laboratory accreditation against an international standard such as ISO 15189. From that essential baseline the leadership of laboratory medicine at local, national and international level needs to‘add value’to ensure the optimal delivery, use,development and evaluation of the services provided for individuals and for groups of patients. A convenient tool to illustrate added value is use of the mnemonic‘SCIENCE’. This tool allows added value to be considered in seven domains: standardisation and harmonisation; clinical effectiveness; innovation; evidence-based practice;novel applications; cost effectiveness; education of others. A second simple tool may be used to assess the impact of developments in laboratory medicine. This tool evaluates any new development against a framework that comprises three dimensions: operational efficiency, patient management, and patient behaviour. The use of these two tools should help to rationalise a complex topic into simple, measurable outcomes. The profession and the patient will benefit from sharing examples of good practice in the future development of laboratory medicine.

Key words: Aadding value, Assessing value, Professional leadership