To better understand the important and evolving role of lab diagnostics in emergency medicine, Roche Diagnostics recently spoke with Dr Zhan Hong, Director of the Emergency Department at the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, and Dr Chen Wei, Director of the Department of Clinical Laboratory at the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University.

In this latest edition of the Master Viewpoint series, Dr Zhan and Dr Chen discuss the history and current state of emergency medicine in China. They note that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increased focus on managing infectious disease outbreaks and other public health emergencies. This comes after years of rising caseloads for other emergency cases, such as for acute coronary syndrome, that have raised the stature of emergency medicine and driven investments in emergency room labs.

This shift has implications for lab testing in emergency departments. Emerging guidelines will impact decisions on emergency lab infrastructure, logistics and site selection. Greater focus on biosafety will likely be necessary. New equipment, test menus and capabilities may be required to deliver fast and accurate results for a diverse range of conditions.

“Emergency testing equipment is small in volume, but test items are numerous and the testing time is short,” says Dr Chen. “It must have low requirements for reagent consumables, strong ability to resist interference, reliable quality, long standby time, and be simple to operate.”

Both interviewees note that lab-clinician collaboration in ensuring that the right lab tests, equipment and processes are selected for the emergency department. The good news is that they now have many communication platforms to support such collaboration, including multidisciplinary consultations, clinical rounds, academic lectures, and informal chat via WeChat or other channels.

Frequent communication was especially important after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, when tight coordination was necessary in a fast-changing situation. But it also matters for new tests and protocols, such as the one-hour algorithm for diagnosis of myocardial infarction.