Clinical method vs clinical laboratory

Abstract

The development of the clinical laboratory at the end of the XX century, impelled by the great technological advances, has been added to the social progress. In the patients' attention, this development has allowed having a more integral system for the health care. In this work we deal with the theme of the technologic development experimented in the clinical laboratory during the last years, providing new fast tests, relatively cheap and safe in the diagnosis of several diseases affecting human health in this century. On the other hand, we recognize the clinical method as a form of using the scientific method in an observational and experimental level and its unavoidable role in the medical practice. We also recognize the indiscriminate usage of the diagnostic methods leading to the detriment of the clinical method, and the responsibility the laboratory has as the provider of each test, when there is no careful revision of the complementary requests, outcomes and clinical correlation, negatively affecting the patient's health and also the economy of the country. The way is tortuous and requires a wider and more perseverant educative work with the physicians, the administrative workers and also the patients, who do not always keep a passive attitude and frequently demand unnecessary complementary examinations to feel themselves good attended. A wider and more perseverant educative work with the physicians, the administrative workers and the patients may positively modify the indiscriminate usage of laboratory examinations.