Status of the clinical laboratory in the mandatory postgraduate medical training system: introduction

To understand the role of the clinical laboratory in the era of mandatory postgraduate medical training, I carried out a questionnaire survey in April 2005 among both university hospitals and clinical teaching hospitals located in the Kinki area. As a result, eleven (84.6%) of the 13 responding laboratories participated in clinical laboratory medical education with an obligatory training program (5 laboratories), with an elective program (3 labs) or both (3 labs). Among the 8 laboratories with an obligatory program, educational lecture subjects included reversed clinicopathological conference (7 labs), blood transfusion (4 labs), laboratory microbiology (4 labs), and blood gas analysis (BGA) (3 labs). On the other hand, in the elective training programs among 6 laboratories, laboratory microbiology including infection control was most frequently held (4 labs) followed by blood transfusion, laboratory hematology and urinalysis (3 labs respectively). Concerning 4 areas, namely, blood transfusion, 12-lead electrocardiography at rest, BGA and ultrasonography, which have been defined as obligatory laboratory techniques for all trainees in mandatory postgraduate medical training, the majority (84.6%) of the responders in this survey replied that they were not sufficient, whereas, Gram's staining was most frequently (69.2%) recommended as an additional obligatory technique in mandatory postgraduate medical training.