‘The meat in the sandwich’

Abstract

In discussing the development of laboratory medicine in Australia, special consideration was given to the greatly increased work lcads and output by clinical biochemistry laboratories in the past decade and in particular, the past 2 yr. Technological advances and automation are making it increasingly easy for laboratory workers to cope with demands by clinicians for biochemical data about patients and the apparently well. The ability of the modern laboratory readily to produce masses of accurate data often outstrips the ability of the medical profession to use properly and understand much of the information available to them about their patients and the apparently well. This also raises the question of the value of screening programmes. A note of warning was given concerning problems facing medically qualified pathologists and their responsibility to bridge a widening gap between the clinical scientists and the clinicians.