ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the role of clinical pathology services. Results of several surveys have shown that the number of laboratory tests performed has been rising exponentially since clinical pathology was established as a discipline in 1922. It is the responsibility of clinical pathologists to evaluate the clinical value of the procedures that they carry out, as it is likely that clinicians are ignorant of the value and limitations of the various test procedures they request. The clinicians were doing their job–caring for the patients–extremely well; indeed saving them from almost certain death by their expertise in treatment. The true comparison of clinical pathology is with real specialties, like cardiology or neurosurgery, where there is a concerted, integrated reaction to ensure that each patient gets the right investigation and treatment and not, as some would have it, with the laundry and other support services.