Laboratory medicine and emergency medicine: a perpetual relationship

The essential goals that laboratorymedicine shall pursue to adequately fulfill clinical needs can be summarized in delivering high quality information,availability of clinically usable tests and turnaround time. The governance of urgent laboratory testing encompassesa harmonious integration of clinical needs and laboratory organization. Clinical laboratories shall hence be morefocused on the pre-preanalytical phase, be involved in proactive efforts for standardizing pre-analytical and analyticalprocedures, optimize the post-analytical and post-post-analytical phases, thus providing a complete information andallowing the achievement of favorable outcomes. Throughout this ample and multifaceted process, the strictcooperation between laboratory professionals and emergency physicians is pivotal. As rationale follow-up of thecollective article published concomitantly with the first joint Academy of Emergency Medicine and Care (AcEMC) -Italian Society of Clinical Biochemistry and Clinical Molecular Biology (SIBioC) meeting, this new collective paperaims to summarize the topics discussed during the second joint event “Laboratory Medicine and EmergencyMedicine: a resumed link”, specifically including the governance of urgent tests, acid-base disorders, venousthromboembolism, acute heart failure, trauma, acute intoxications, viral diseases and other emerging infections.