Advanced Technology and Its Impact on the Clinical Laboratory: Innovative Technological Advancements in Laboratory Medicine: Predicting the Lab of the Future

Abstract

Advancement in technology is an opportunity for clinical laboratories because many of the changes taking place in laboratory medicine are driven by technology. It is fair then to estimate that diagnostic testing of the future, whether it be predictive, preventive, or diagnostic, will continue to be as significantly dependent on innovation and invention as in recent history. Technology will have a major impact on the practice of pathology and laboratory medicine, as well as on the management and organization of the clinical laboratory, and consequently on the roles of those who provide services to health care. Rapid changes in technology continually improve in vitro testing, bringing forth more complete and more reliable information. Consequently, the future clinical laboratory will be asked to fulfill roles very different from its traditional use for direct observation and measurement of diagnostic indicators. These changes are coupled with a necessity to reduce health care costs and to furnish improved and more practical uses of clinical and anatomic pathology information.