Breaking Down Barriers in Healthcare: Urgency for the Clinical Laboratory to Migrate from the Background to the Forefront of Patient Care

The movement towards value-based healthcare has provided a platform for a better future for all involved in the health ecosystem. However, amongst the multitude of value initiatives, the clinical laboratory has largely been left to play a secondary role. Despite its core value principles of data, timely and efficient diagnosis, and patient centricity, the lab has been relegated to near-commodity status. This is also indicative of a broader problem: a fragmented value chain that underexploits sources in decision-making, at a time when the health world’s stated focus is on outcomes.