Dear Colleagues,

Laboratory medicine is the single largest medical activity in healthcare worldwide. Clinical laboratories play a central role in patient care delivery by providing and ensuring the quality of medical laboratory testing to support clinical decision-making. Indeed, clinical laboratories supply healthcare professionals with the objective data necessary to provide high-quality, safe, effective, and appropriate care for disease prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and management. It is estimated that the number of laboratory tests available to clinicians has doubled to at least 3,500 tests in the past 20 years. In addition, the global in vitro diagnostics (IVD) market was valued at $87 billion USD in 2021 and is projected to reach $135 billion USD in the next 10 years, growing at a rate of 4.6% annually. It is indisputable that healthcare systems cannot operate without the information provided by clinical laboratories in hospital and community settings. While it is estimated that clinical laboratories provide approximately 90% of the objective data in medical records and influence 60–70% of clinical decisions, evidence supporting these claims is not well documented. A recent report by Rohr et al. completed an interview survey of 40 oncologists and 39 cardiologists and assessed in how many cases they ordered IVD testing and in how many cases IVD was used for initial diagnosis, treatment monitoring, or post-treatment follow-up. Overall, IVD testing was used in 88, 77, and 72% of patients for initial diagnosis, treatment monitoring, and follow-up, respectively, demonstrating the clear value of IVD in patient assessment.

In recent years, deep changes are regarding the way for healthcare distribution. These changes are driven by an increasingly patient-centered approach, a greater emphasis on primary care, ever faster and more efficient patient triage in the healthcare system, a reduction in the concept of the hospital as a single care center, a reduction in hospitalization time in hospital wards and the consolidation and reorganization of hospitals. Clinical Laboratories, which play a key role in clinical decision-making (60-70% of diagnoses are based on laboratory test results), are not immune to the processes of change affecting the way health care is provided. This aspect, together with the need for economic rebalancing, leads the laboratories to apply reorganization processes that pass through consolidation and decentralization. In order to respond to changes and make the provision of its services more effective, modern laboratory medicine will have to use all types of technology available. The Point of Care Testing (POCT), whose driving concept is that of having light instrumentation, compact and agile to carry, as well as suitable for performing the test (s) the most comfortably and immediately way for the patient, represents an organizational modality of Laboratory Medicine which has numerous advantages in view of these changes. The POCT, therefore, is an organizational model of the clinical laboratory, aimed at improving the quality of care, in which the execution of the analytical activity is entrusted to non-laboratory personnel.

Laboratory Medicine section of Biochemistry Application accepts papers that contribute to knowledge in all fields of laboratory medicine, especially those pertaining to the discoveries regarding new biomakers, new methods of detection of them, diagnosis and treatment of human disease. Laboratory Medicine publishes papers on clinical biochemistry, clinical audit, metabolic medicine, immunology, genetics, biotechnology, haematology, microbiology, computing and management where they have both biochemical and clinical relevance. Papers describing evaluation or implementation of commercial reagent kits or the performance of new analysers require substantial original information.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Margherita Borriello

Section Editor