Submitted by DOH Communication Office
Originally posted 4/29/2009

TALLAHASSEE, FL – Laboratory test results nationwide constitute an estimated 70 percent of patients’ medical records and are vital to diagnoses, treatment and medical decision-making.

Every year, the Florida Department of Health’s (DOH) Bureau of Laboratories produces over 10 million results per year at five sites located in Jacksonville, Lantana, Miami, Pensacola and Tampa. This testing is critical in ensuring that Floridians are healthy and that their environments are safe.

For example, the Bureau screens all babies born in Florida for 34 medical disorders so that treatment, if necessary, can begin as soon as possible.

Florida’s public health laboratories test clinical samples for viruses, bacteria and parasites and toxins that can cause disease in humans. These diseases include anthrax, smallpox, rabies, HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. The laboratories provide supporting data for food and waterborne outbreaks by checking for chemical and biological contaminants. The Bureau also has the capability to identify more than 150 chemicals in case of a terrorist attack and to detect drug resistant organisms such as methicillin-resistant (MRSA); multiple drug resistant and extensively drug resistant tuberculosis.

The DOH Bureau of Laboratories is a national leader in public health. The Bureau was one of the first state public health laboratories to implement electronic laboratory ordering and also one of the first to rapidly integrate nucleic acid amplification (NAA) testing for tuberculosis. The Bureau is a member of the World Health Organization Influenza Surveillance Network of Laboratories to alert world leaders of potential pandemic flu strains.

(Also, the BOL and FDOH in coordination with the CDC, TDSHS, and APHL are working on a pilot project called the Pan Flu Grant. For more info please click here)

Factors increasing the demand for medical laboratory testing include an aging U.S. population, medical advancements such as organ transplants, and unprecedented increases in international travel and immigration resulting in the importation of rare or previously unknown diseases. With the stronger emphasis on preventive medicine both nationally and here in Florida, medical laboratory professionals in clinical and public health laboratories become even more important in the rapid detection, treatment and statistical assessment of chronic and emergent diseases such as AIDS, West Nile virus and hepatitis C and the resurgence of old diseases such as tuberculosis.

DOH promotes, protects and improves the health of all people in Florida. To learn more about the DOH Bureau of Laboratories, visit www.doh.state.fl.us/lab/index.html.