[Clinical laboratory consultation in the general hospital]

The future of laboratory medicine depends not only on quality assurance but also on appropriate use of laboratory tests. The clinical laboratory consultation system is effective tool for clarifying purpose. As an active laboratory-initiated consultation, we report patient-oriented "Laboratory Comment" on important or abnormal test results of each patient. About one thousand laboratory comments have been accumulated over the past eight years. From these comments, we discussed the requirements of laboratory consultation skills, establish standards for laboratory data check, and a database of reported and accumulated consultations or comments.