Laboratory medicine at the threshold of the new century

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to make a brief review of the impact that new technologies including automation, cybernetics, informatics, robotics, and telecommunications have had in today's society with a particular focus on the Clinical Laboratory where significant evolution has been evolving through the last two decades of the 20th Century and the first two decades of the 21st Century. Laboratory Medicine is a specialty in which multiple disciplines converge, including Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Pathology, so that nowadays the concept of Clinical Laboratory Professionals has been increasingly accepted. Given that the Medical Relevance is currently the fundamental premise, the understanding and application of the Biological Variability and its importance on the establishment of Analytical Goals is better understood and accepted day. The recognition of the suitability of the laboratory should include the human dimension and the technological dimension starting with the fulfillment of bioethics so each laboratory must have a Code of Ethics dated and signed by all personnel in which they commit themselves not to incur in conflicts of interest, always placing the patient's interest above any other.