A host to many interrelated disciplines, the practice is evidence based. The challenges facing medical practice: Diagnosis, prevalence, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation (when necessary). Before the advent of the clinical laboratory and the X ray (radiology), and now designated Imaging, diagnosis was based on intuition and imagination. Laboratory investigations as part of health care was recognised in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Since then the progress has been phenomenal.

Laboratory medicine also paved the way for getting insights into the basic sciences. Structure - Anatomy Function - Physiology Which in turn, led to altered structure and function (disease), leading to Pathology and Biochemistry. Till the nineteen sixties, the Clinical Laboratory was a single department in a hospital, under the banner of Pathology.

It had various sections Haematology for Anemia, Leukaemia, Clotting disorders, and Blood Transfusion. Bacteriology for infection by microbes. Biochemistry- chemical analysis of blood and urine for liver and kidney and metabolic diseases. By mid seventies, these became individual disciplines, the university offering separate degrees for each. Today we have even more, thanks to the sophisticated instrumentation and computerisation.

Now we confidently command Precision and Punctuality of reporting. When I started my career as a Resident Pathologist in the late sixties, laboratory was a single department. I had the benefit of getting trained in Hematology, Pathology (including postmortem and transfusion), Biochemistry and Bacteriology.

From this humble beginning, I chose to specialise in Biochemistry. A career spanning close to half a century, I often experienced uncertainties, anxiety, frustration, triumph and satisfaction.

I would like to share my experiences.

Speaker bio: Dr. Raji Swamy, did her MBBS in Topiwala National Medical college, Mumbai, MD in JIPMER Puducherry and PhD in National Institute of Research in Tuberculosis Chennai. She has worked as a Pathologist in Topiwala National Medical College, Mumbai Southern Railway Hospital, Chennai, National Institute of research in Tuberculosis, Chennai, Devaki Hospital, Chennai and Sundaram Medical Foundation, Chennai.