National standards for the laboratory medicine in Russia: 10 years of development
Safe laboratory services for healthcare consist in obtaining biologically and analytically reliable laboratory results which constitute an accurate representation of quantitative or qualitative characteristics of the object of study: biochemical process, cellular element or microorganism. A system of measures should be in place to fulfil this objective and ensure registration and minimization of biological, iatrogenic, pre-analytical and analytical variation effects preventing from obtaining laboratory results which accurately characterize the condition or content of a clinically significant component of the biomatenal. Currently, the Russian laboratory medicine has a set of national standards harmonized with international regulations and aimed at achieving the goal in every clinical diagnostic laboratory that meets the requirements of these standards. The actual focus of health authorities will determine the success of eliminating obstacles in the implementation of the standards in clinical laboratories which will help to upgrade and significantly improve the efficiency of health care in the field of clinical laboratory diagnostics.