More Studies on Outcomes Using Biochemical Diagnostic Tests Are Needed: Findings from the Danish Society of Clinical Biochemistry

The results of biochemical tests often lead to diagnostic and therapeutic interventions, and the real value of a test can be assessed only by taking into account the subsequent health outcomes. The importance of outcomes studies, and the challenges in performing them, was reviewed by Bruns in 2001 (1), who argued that this type of study should be performed more frequently, and that such studies should be used to determine whether new tests should be implemented in clinical practice.To investigate the extent to which this recommendation has been realized, a working group on evidence-based clinical biochemistry established by the Danish Society of Clinical Biochemistry undertook a pilot study to record the number and type of reports of diagnostic biochemical outcome studies published from January 2005 to January 2006 in 4 medical journals: Clinical Chemistry, Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine , Lancet and the …