Methods Guide

Improving Quality in Laboratory Medicine

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Division of Laboratory Systems (DLS) works with healthcare partners to identify best practices in laboratory medicine through an evidence-based process. While evidence-based decision-making is standard in healthcare, its usage in laboratory medicine is more limited. CDC has sponsored the Laboratory Medicine Best Practices Initiative (LMBP) initiative to address the need for a more systematic, multi-disciplinary, comprehensive, and transparent approach to identifying, evaluating, and recommending best practices for the field. The LMBP Initiative aims to:

• Facilitate a network for the exchange of information on effective laboratory practices
• Improve decision making and health care policy through evidence-based recommendations
• Develop new systematic methods to conduct laboratory medicine quality improvement evidence reviews
• Conduct systematic evidence reviews to identify what works in laboratory medicine
• Provides a way for laboratory and healthcare partner organizations to contribute unpublished studies to the effort.