Ten Challenges of Establishing Medical Ethics in Medical Laboratory

The priority of providing welfare,health and patients’ interests is ageneral principle in medical ethics. The medical laboratory services should be presentedregarding the ethical principles. This study is aimed to describe a clear picture of the present status of medical ethics in medical laboratories and the challenges related to the establishment of them. In order to achieve this goal, the following three research questions were addressed in this study: 1- Are the criteria concerning the medical ethics in medical laboratories regarded for the patients refer to medical laboratories appropriate in terms of the theoretical and practical considerations including real tariffs for medical laboratory services, professional competitions amid medical laboratories, financial relationships between physicians and the heads of the medical laboratories, financial commitments of the insurers, the quality of the kits and the other utilized materials, and validity or accuracy of the tests from the viewpoints of the patients and of the heads of the medical laboratories participated in the study? 2- What are the overall impressions of the patients and of the heads of the medical laboratories regarding the present status of administration of the medical ethics in the medical laboratories? 3- Is there any significant difference between the patients’ viewpoints and those of the heads of the medical laboratories? A quantitative design inclusive the questionnaire was utilized to carry out the present research. The questionnaire contained 10 criteria for fundamental challenges relating to establishing the medical ethics in medical laboratories. One hundred patients and thirty head medical laboratory, as available samples, participated in this study. The results demonstrate that the patients and the head medical laboratories were not satisfied with the present status for most of the criteria which the medical ethics should fulfill. Moreover, the results show no significant difference between the viewpoints of the patients and the head medical laboratories. Despite, the overall impressions of the participants reveal that they are satisfied with the present status of administration of medical ethics, it seems essential that the improvement in establishing the medical ethics is given peculiar consideration by providing the solutions to the challenges examined in the study.