Today is the International Day of Laboratory Diagnostics Specialist.

I sincerely love this specialty.
Where numbers are compared, there is room for precision, and every year new methods are added to the thousands that already exist.

14 years ago, in a large hospital, we introduced pharmacogenetic methods to select high-risk patients and eliminated serious adverse reactions.

12 years ago, we automated PCR laboratories, which accelerated the delivery of results for one of the most in-demand methods in infectious disease diagnostics.

10 years ago, in Russia, we created the first standardized microbiota test. Now the time is approaching to justify its widespread clinical use.

5 years ago, we launched a therapeutic drug monitoring laboratory, where by determining the concentration of a drug in a patient's blood, we were able to implement a personalized approach. Thanks to this, we adapted the use of a new drug for treating tuberculosis in children.

Hundreds of conferences, expert councils, thousands of letters, and hundreds of thousands of test tubes in hand during this time.

But not everything worked out. Analysis of oral microbiota for predicting dental treatment outcomes, laboratory analysis of response to migraine therapy, analysis of neurofilaments for assessing the dynamics of complex neurological disorders, analysis of the number of T-regulatory lymphocytes did not go into widespread practice.

We cannot stop. We need to try, connect, find clinical meaning, calculate the economics of the method, and find the courage to abandon what is unnecessary. That is what I continue to do.

Happy holiday to all Colleagues and everyone involved in clinical laboratory diagnostics!

@drakarasev