ELISA in the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory

Automation in the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory

The clinical microbiology laboratory has historically been considered “low-tech,” especially when compared to the clinical chemistry laboratory. However, systems are emerging for the clinical microbiology laboratory with the potential to automate almost all areas of testing, including inoculation of primary culture plates, detection of growth on culture media, identification of microorganisms, ...

[Automation in the clinical microbiology laboratory].

Imagine a clinical microbiology laboratory where a patient's specimens are placed on a conveyor belt and sent on an automation line for processing and plating. Technologists need only log onto a computer to visualize the images of a culture and send to a mass spectrometer for identification. Once a pathogen is identified, the system knows to send the colony for susceptibility testing. This is t...

Competency assessment in the clinical microbiology laboratory.

The laboratory comprises an invaluable part of the total health care provided to patients. Competency assessment is one method by which we can verify that our employees are competent to perform laboratory testing and report accurate and timely results. To derive the greatest benefit from the inclusion of competency assessment in the laboratory, we must be sure that we are addressing areas where...

Introducing New Laboratory-Developed Molecular Methods in the Clinical Microbiology Laboratories

Impact of clinical practice guidelines on the clinical microbiology laboratory.

Evidence-based medicine is the application of a rigorous scientific framework to the ancient art of caring for a patient that is so central to medicine. Clinical practice guidelines are an important outgrowth of the concept of evidence-based medicine. They have been defined by the Institute of Medicine as “systematically developed statements to assist practitioner and patient decisions about ap...