From volume to value: a watershed moment for the clinical laboratory

The clinical laboratory is often evaluated for the volume of testing. However, it is undeniable that laboratory tests affect clinical decision-making and are included in many clinical guidelines, meaning their contribution to determining clinical outcomes. Therefore, the clinical laboratory professional has the task of enhancing laboratory tests by optimizing the request and reporting phase and addressing patient outcomes. This opinion paper, presenting practical examples of managing value-based health care in the clinical laboratory context, underlines the need to shift towards value-based management to optimize outcome-based health care.