IFBLS Definition of Core Competence for Biomedical Laboratory Scientists

Biomedical Laboratory Science combines knowledge, skills and abilities in medicine, physical science, technology, and statistics with emphasis on analysing specimens from patients in order to aid in diagnosing and treatment of disease.

The Biomedical Laboratory Scientist education and training make the profession unique compared to other professions in terms of knowledge of quality assurance, evaluation of pre-analytical conditions and assessment of their impact, validation of medical laboratory analysis, considerations of uncertainty of measurement and biological variability and understanding of post-analytical situations used for diagnosis of disease, monitoring of treatment and evaluation of health status.

The Core Competences for the Biomedical Laboratory Scientist include a thorough understanding of the fundamentals of scientific and technical biomedical laboratory processes and how these inform clinical decision-making. This includes development and validation of clinical laboratory methods and techniques, implementation and verification of new analytical testing methods, quality assurance of biomedical analysis, the end-to-end process from when an analyte is ordered, and the sample collection through to the validation of the test result, interpretation of the test result and potential clinical implication and communication of the test result.

The Core Competences for Biomedical Laboratory Scientists are built on scientific methods (evidence-based) and the ethics of patient care.