Pharmacy-based laboratory services: risk, opportunity or both?

Laboratory diagnostics has undergone relevant changes in organization and complexity, providing new opportunities and risks. Many laboratory tests are now available on compact, easy to operate and reliable instruments, making it possible for facilities other than the traditional clinical laboratories (e.g., pharmacies) to conduct on-site or mobile testing. Ideally, although there is nothing wrong with a rational decentralization, on-site laboratory testing must still be considered a knowledge service, and a core set of competency-quality- consultancy prerequisites should be fulfilled to ensure that results of tests performed outside the clinical laboratories can reach the highest degree of efficiency and clinical efficacy. Pharmacies were historically involved in clinical chemistry. At the European level, the existing pharmacy syllabus gives to students and postgraduates the physiopathological knowledge a good basis for such an evolution. © 2008 by Walter de Gruyter.