MODERNISING clinical laboratory practice in Zimbabwe is essential for better medical outcomes and training the next generation of medical professionals, former Health Minister Obadiah Moyo has said.
Moyo who attended the meeting as a guest of honour at the inaugural annual meeting of the Medical Laboratory and Clinical Scientists Council of Zimbabwe (MLCSCZ) in Harare last week, said laboratory tests were the mainstay of medicine.
“Definitive diagnosis requires laboratory tests. Clinical Laboratory test results are the backbone of medicine,” he said.
Up to 70 percent of physician decisions regarding patient diagnosis and therapy are based on laboratory test results.
Moyo emphasised the need for professionals to have advanced knowledge and clinical practice which has been made apparent by the recent advances in genomics, the explosion of medical technologies and the role of ICTs in clinical diagnostics.
“With a plethora of clinical laboratory tests and new molecular methodologies being added to the clinical laboratory test menu, clinicians are challenged to keep abreast with the latest in laboratory services. This has led many professionals in the field in the United States, Europe and some parts of Africa to establish and deploy a professional doctorate in clinical laboratory medicine.
“This is meant to address this unmet need for advanced knowledge in laboratory medicine,” he said.
Moyo, is currently a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists (UK) and a registered Chemical Pathologist,
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The meeting was attended by Health Ministry acting chief director Dr Stephen Banda and other high-ranking dignitaries, including the chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health and Child Care Josiah Makombe, head of the Health Professions Authority Ranganai Mubvumbi, the registrar of the MLCSCZ Agnes Chigora the President of the Zimbabwe College of Pathology Professor Hilda Matarira and the chairperson of the University of Zimbabwe Department of Laboratory Diagnostics and Research Dr Ian Machingura-Ruredzo among others.
