Celebrating World Laboratory Day

By Stephen Mukaya

World Laboratory Day is celebrated annually on April 15. The laboratory is the place where great inventions emerge to make the world a better place. It is also a day to recognize those who do research and experiments in these unique workspaces.

Almroth Wright, Robert Koch, Walter Reed, Marie Curie, and Louis Pasteur, Edward Jener, among other great scientists, sacrificed their time in the laboratory to offer solutions to the problems that bedeviled society.

Some of the world’s greatest discoveries came directly from a laboratory. These discoveries include things like creating treatments for deadly diseases, putting satellites in outer space, and discovering new elements on the periodic table.

Laboratory breakthroughs have changed and even saved lives. These discoveries have also helped us to better understand our universe, allowed us to become more energy efficient, and helped people around the world to save money.

Medical diagnostic laboratories have continued to evolve. In the 1950s and 1960s, the explosion of knowledge in the biological and clinical sciences, the development of automation, and more sophisticated laboratory techniques and their relevance to the delivery of healthcare, created the need for a well-defined and more academically organized medical laboratory science program.

By the 1980s, many degree-granting institutions had established curricula in medical laboratory sciences. The professional requirements of medical laboratory science advanced from “no formal qualification” in the 1940s and 1950s, to a Bachelor’s degree, followed by the Master’s degree and Doctoral degree programs in the last 30 years.

Today, medical laboratory science is a well-developed body of knowledge that includes portions of basic and medical sciences, medical techniques, and research methods. This facilitates and ensures the production of quality medical diagnostic testing.

A microscope, an essential apparatus in every laboratory

PHOTO | STOCK

The laboratory has an important role in providing quality healthcare services, achieving efficiency and cost-effectiveness in the healthcare system, and achieving good health planning and management in healthcare. Laboratory investigation increases the accuracy of disease diagnosis. Many infectious diseases and serious illnesses are diagnosed through laboratory analysis. For instance, the error in the diagnosis of malaria, based on clinical symptoms only, is high. The symptomatic presentation can be misleading.

Blood Bank/Apheresis, Clinical chemistry/immunoassay, hematology and coagulation, Medical Microscopy, cytogenetics, endocrinology, immunoserology, microbiology (including Bacteriology, Virology, Parasitology), Molecular Pathology, Tissue Typing/HLA, toxicology all form the core individual areas of laboratory medicine:

The laboratory has an essential role in screening for ill health and assessing response to treatment, that is, assessing a patient’s response to drug therapy, screening individuals with infectious diseases (such as tuberculosis, and sexually transmitted diseases), screening whole blood and blood product for transfusion-transmitted pathogens, screen pregnant women for anemia and infections that may be transmitted to newborn and others.

Laboratory in collaboration with other medical disciplines play a critical role in reducing infection in the community and investigating epidemics rapidly. Through this, the spread of infectious diseases is controlled. Consequently, disease control measures are selected and targeted, effectively. This is achieved by detecting the source of infection, identifying carriers, and contact tracing.

Participating in epidemiological surveys, as well as conducting onsite testing, collection, and dispatch of specimens when an epidemic occurs, and participating in health education, is paramount.

Efficiency and cost-effectiveness in the healthcare system are realizable when drugs are used more selectively and only when indicated. This helps reduce drug resistance.

Laboratory lowers healthcare costs by identifying diseases at an early stage.

This lowers the number of times a patient may need to seek medical care for the same illness and prevents complications, thus, avoiding hospitalization and further costly investigations.

Reliable laboratory test results with relevant patient data, provide information on the health status of a community, health patterns, and disease trends. This information is important in establishing healthcare priorities and plans. Armed with this information, proper healthcare programs are implementable (training of health personnel and delivery of health service as well as treatment schedule and change in drug usage).

As we mark this year’s World Laboratory Day, medical professionals should redouble their efforts and resolve to serve humanity. Teamwork, dedication, commitment as well as embracing technological advancement will see us surmount ever-increasing medical challenges bedeviling our society. Meanwhile, I urge the government to invest heavily to promote laboratory activities bearing in mind that the laboratory is the ‘gold mine’ of research and discoveries.