[Role of clinical laboratory physicians in clinical hematology]

The specialty for laboratory hematology has been difficult to define in Japan, since both the clinical laboratory physician and clinical hematologist usually engage in this field. I propose herein that the specialty for laboratory hematology belongs to laboratory medicine. This makes it possible for the clinical laboratory physician to provide active medical assistance for laboratory diagnosis of hematological disorders so that the clinical hematologist can effectively perform practical management of the patient. For this purpose, I describe the program of postgraduate education for doctors in laboratory hematology. General instructional objectives (GIOs) and specific behavioral objectives (SBOs) are proposed to set the education program for clinical laboratory physicians and to establish the specialty of laboratory hematology in Japan. For the establishment of this system, the committee for the Japanese educational program for the medical board should authorize this newly developed conception for the clinical laboratory physicians who work in the hematology laboratory.