[Quality assurance in laboratory medicine--reality and challenge]

So far, quality assurance in laboratory medicine in Norway has concentrated mainly on results. As yet, however, much still remains to be done, particularly in the fields of pathology, radiology and nuclear medicine. Insufficient emphasis has been paid to quality assurance of the requests made for tests and interpretation of the results. Important for this part of quality assurance are teaching and education, cooperation between the laboratory physician and the clinician, more active participation of the laboratory physician in the solving of clinical problems and a change from menu-oriented to problem-oriented requests.