Clinical pathology

), medical technologists, hospital administrators, and referring physicians to ensure the accuracy and optimal utilization of laboratory testing.

Under the CLIA law, only the US Department of Health and Human Services approved Board Certified Ph.D., DSc, or MD and DO can perform the duties of a Medical or Clinical Laboratory Director.

Overlap between anatomic and clinical pathology is expanding to molecular diagnostics and proteomics as we move towards making the best use of new technologies for personalized medicine.

[3] Clinical pathologists may assist physicians in interpreting complex tests such as platelet aggregometry, hemoglobin or serum protein electrophoresis, or coagulation profiles.

For example, hemolysis, icterus, lipemia, or heterophile antibodies may confound results obtained by traditional methods such as ion-selective electrodes, enzymatic assays or immunoassays.

Alternate methods such as blood gas analysers, point-of-care testing or mass spectrometry may help resolve the clinical question.

Pathologists may review samples such as pleural, peritoneal, synovial, or pericardial fluids to characterize them as "normal", tumoral, inflammatory, or even infectious.

Automated analysers, by the association of robotics and spectrophotometry, have allowed these last decades better reproducibility of the results, in particular in medical biochemistry and hematology.

[6] Efficiency and productivity can be enhanced by automating the pre-analytical processing, including barcode reading, sorting, centrifuging, and aliquoting specimens.