Introduction

 

Department of Biochemistry started as a small clinical laboratory catering  to the basic needs of various departments of SVIMS. Later, it expanded its activities into clinical teaching and research wings. The clinical laboratory was expanded by acquiring state of art equipment and increasing the number and types of investigations performed. Currently, the tests are performed using fully automated techniques and latest methods.  Currently around three lakh investigations are carried out per year. The clinical laboratory is run 24 hours a day and all 365 days to provide emergency investigation facilities. The facility has also been extended to people outside as a result of which the patients of S.V.R.R.Hospital, Tirupati as well as those referred by general practitioners of this region are benefited. The cost of the investigations is lower when compared to laboratories having similar sophisticated equipment. Also some of the tests which are not available locally like serum ADA, levels of antiepileptic drugs like Phenobarbitone, phenytoin & carbamazepine, serum PSA, AFP, HCG and CEA levels and serum iron levels are done routinely.

 Monitoring of laboratory quality is done through general laboratory maintenance, proper selection of equipment, methods and their valuation and internal quality control by way of  two levels of quality control material run daily along with the  generation of  quality control charts every month. Apart from this, the results are scrutinized by experienced and qualified medical experts in the field before they are reported. The technicians working  are  all  science   graduates   with   lab technology  qualification and experienced enough to cope up with the work. Our laboratory is involved in External quality assessment program conducted by  CMC Vellore.

 As this is a teaching institute, this clinical laboratory is also used for training students. The students being trained here include Medical postgraduate students (MD Biochemistry) of this institute as well as , medical postgraduates from the local government medical college , PhD students , M.Sc. (medical) Biochemistry with an annual intake of five,  BSc MLT (a three year course in medical laboratory technology) with an annual intake of sixteen students and BSc. Physician assistant ( a four year course) with an annual intake of ten students. Regular CMEs and Seminars are conducted to make clinicians aware of latest trends in clinical laboratory practices and their role in Quality Control. The technicians are encouraged to update their knowledge through active participation in regular seminars.