Laboratory equipment--where are the tools to do the work?

The call for appropriate technology in medical laboratory sciences, especially for equipment, is becoming widespread and urgent. In developed countries new technology has led to a proliferation of complex tools and a tendency to overinvestigate patients. Such tools have been introduced more in response to demand than need, with the tacit help of manufacturers. For many health authorities this costly new technology is becoming difficult to sustain. In the Third World it is a question not of financial cuts threatening existing services but of how to establish a service at