English 
Italian OPINIONI - Opinions
Volume:
Biochimica Clinica 2020; 44(4) 021-022
Pubblicato on-line:
October 16, 2020
DOI:
10.19186/BC_2020.081
Impatto dell’emergenza COVID-19 nei laboratori: esperienze e opinioni dei SIBioC Young Scientists
The impact of COVID-19 emergency in clinical laboratories: experiences and opinions of SIBioC Young Scientists
AUTORI
1Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milano
2Dipartimento di Medicina-DIMED e Università degli Studi di Padova
3Laboratorio Unico Metropolitano, AUSL Bologna
4Unità Operativa Patologia Clinica, Ospedale S. Chiara, APSS Trento
5Dipartimento di Scienze Cliniche Applicate e Biotecnologiche, Università dell'Aquila, L'Aquila
6Dipartimento di Cardiologia,, Università di Roma Tor Vergata
7Dipartimento di Biochimica Clinica, Università di Roma Tor Vergata
8Centro Risorse Biologiche, Biobanca, IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Roma
9Centro Europeo di Ricerca sul Cervello, Roma
ABSTRACT
The impact of COVID-19 emergency in clinical laboratories: experiences and opinions of SIBioC Young Scientists
The recent pandemic status declared worldwide for the spreading of the new coronavirus-SARS-CoV-2 has emphasized the key role of the Laboratory Medicine in the health care process. In this context, the clinical laboratories needed to rapidly reorganize the internal workflow to face the emergency and to continue ensuring rapid and accurate responses. This has been possible only thanks to the contribution of all the personal working in the laboratory, including administrative staff, nurses, technical staff, and clinical chemists. The competence and the commitment of the Young Scientists (YS), can be considered an essential contribution to the efficient and successful management of the pandemic in clinical laboratories.
This paper reports the experiences and the opinions of some of the members of the SIBioC YS Study Group, who have been involved in the clinical laboratory management of the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper is focused to present and discuss the use of the molecular and serological tests for the screening and diagnosis of COVID-19, the reorganization of laboratories, the development of panels of biochemical markers for organ damage and cardiovascular involvement diagnosis. Finally, issues are addressed regarding the importance of safety procedures for biohazard containment, and of future research and development perspectives, thanks to the availability of biological specimens from patients affected by COVID-19, safely and correctly stored in biobanks, together with the associated clinical data.