September is National Cholesterol Education Month. Learn more about cholesterol and other lipids, and when testing may be appropriate.
Learn MoreTo learn more about laboratory medicine in general and gain a greater understanding of how laboratory testing can impact your health care, read the following in-depth articles. These patient resources are intended to help you navigate the testing process, provide context for the lab tests you may need or have already completed, and give you a better understanding of your test results.
Learn about the roles and qualifications of the many skilled professionals who work in clinical laboratories, including technologists, pathologists, and other laboratorians.
Learn how and why different types of laboratory tests are developed, validated, and made available for use by patients and their healthcare practitioners.
As health care consumers have taken on more responsibility for their health, increased attention has been given to the value of preventive medicine. This article discusses how you can take an active role in your health care, offering general suggestions as well as more detail on the role of screening tests.
High standards of quality for clinical laboratories are maintained by federal and state government, laboratory professional organizations, and individual laboratories themselves.
In this article, you can learn about laboratory-developed tests, also called "LDTs", that are developed, evaluated, and validated within one particular laboratory. They are not distributed or sold to any other labs or healthcare facilities to perform on their own. Often, a lab will choose to develop and use an LDT because a commercial test is not currently available.
The majority of laboratory tests in use today are commercial lab tests, those that are are manufactured, marketed, and sold in volume as kits to multiple laboratories and other healthcare facilities. In this article, you can learn how the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates the development and marketing of the commercial tests used in medical care.
This form enables patients to ask specific questions about lab tests. Your questions will be answered by a laboratory scientist as part of a voluntary service provided by one of our partners, American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science. Please allow 2-3 business days for an email response from one of the volunteers on the Consumer Information Response Team.
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