Deadly Pathogens, Transformative Technologies, and Protracted Pandemics: Challenges and Opportunities in Laboratory Medicine
These are unprecedented times in medicine, and laboratory medicine is at the forefront. While advances in genomics and proteomics have dramatically improved our ability to diagnose and characterize infectious diseases, the world faces momentous challenges from increasing antimicrobial resistance, resurgence of ancient scourges, and outbreaks of emerging pathogens. There have been more than a dozen viral diseases outbreaks in the past 2 decades alone , and the emergence of novel viral pathogens is predicted to accelerate in coming years . Most notable is the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, which continues to upend daily lives around the planet and raise many medical, social, economic, and political issues. Let‘s find the major challenges faced by the global laboratory medicine community, as well as the opportunities provided by the development and implementation of transformative technologies.
No issue on modern-day laboratory medicine would be complete without a careful consideration of the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has on the field. The novel disease came to the world’s attention on December 31, 2019, when the WHO reported an outbreak of severe respiratory infections in Wuhan, China . The causative virus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), was identified and sequenced in record time, and this facilitated the rapid development of diagnostic laboratory tests . Despite containment efforts, the virus quickly spread around the world, prompting the WHO to characterize COVID-19 as a pandemic threat on March 11, 2020 . Two years later, the pandemic has now claimed nearly 5 million lives worldwide, and there is still no sign of abatement .
The COVID-19 pandemic brought about exponential changes in the field. Plato famously wrote in his Republic (c. 375 BCE) that “our need will be the real creator,” and this was evidenced by the many improvisations and innovations undertaken by clinical laboratories with astonishing speed to meet patient testing needs. Laboratories struggled to provide testing in the face of unparalleled supply challenges, workforce shortages, regulatory challenges, unknown infectious risks, and the constantly evolving knowledge of a novel pathogen. Along the way, many laboratories explored alternative specimen types , novel collection devices, innovative specimen pooling methods, and even at-home collection and testing .
While laboratory testing has an important role in the diagnosis and prevention of infection and informing the public health response, laboratories can not do it alone.There is no doubt that ours is a global and highly mobile world, where emerging pathogens can traverse the globe in mere days. Thus, the world must take a One Health approach to ensure the health and safety of the world’s populations . We thank laboratorians around the world for their tireless efforts battling the COVID-19 pandemic.
From：Clinical Chemistry, Volume 68, Issue 1, January 2022