AACC NEWS RELEASE
First Round of Lab Tests Online Globalization Complete - Translated Versions launched in Hungary and Italy
Washington, DC, October 10, 2007 - Two new versions of Lab Tests Online launched in the last two weeks, marking a successful end to a year of global expansion for the award-winning patient education site. The new sites provide Hungarian and Italian translations of the highly praised information on medical laboratory testing. Four other versions of the site, one each in Spanish, German, Polish, and Australian English, launched earlier in the year. A British version went online in 2004.
Originally produced in the United States by the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC), Lab Tests Online (www.labtestsonline.org) is the mother site that has begat a total of seven country-specific versions around the world. It was launched in 2001 by AACC to fill a gap in available patient information, which tends to focus on symptoms and treatments and much less so on diagnosis. Laboratory testing and analysis of blood, urine, and other samples from the body play an important role in a majority of diagnoses.
The US site currently receives more than one million visits a month, and has been called one of the smartest health sites on the web . It is collaboratively developed by AACC and 16 other US and Canadian laboratory associations, ensuring that the site reflects expertise in all areas of the medical laboratory, including chemistry, microbiology, hematology, and molecular pathology. The site receives annual funding from diagnostic companies interested in supporting such a valued public service.
Each new version of Lab Tests Online is adapted to the language, practice, and policies of the country in which it is developed by one of that country s leading laboratory associations. In Italy, for example, the Italian Society of Clinical Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (SIBioC) is responsible for producing Lab Tests Online-IT. Support for the European sites that launched this year has come from the European Diagnostic Manufacturers Association and the national trade association in each country.
In acknowledging the half-dozen new Lab Tests Online sites, AACC President Gary L. Myers said, The globalization of Lab Tests Online is an acknowledgement of the vital role that laboratory medicine plays in understanding patient health, and each new website is an ongoing recognition of the many professionals whose work in the laboratory so often contributes substantially to the diagnoses and treatment decisions made by physicians.
The new sites are a significant, and perhaps, unprecedented achievement - one that marks the completion of what AACC hopes will be a first round in the globalization of Lab Tests Online. The launch of six localized versions this year has generated substantial interest from other countries, and has quickly made Lab Tests Online a global standard for patient education and a highly visible symbol of the worldwide laboratory community.
Links to each of the international versions of Lab Tests Online are available from the US site (http://www.labtestsonline.org/).
Lab Tests Online Partners are listed at
http://www.labtestsonline.org/site/m_partners.html.
Lab Tests Online Sponsors are listed at
http://www.labtestsonline.org/site/n_sponsors.html.
The American Association for Clinical Chemistry is an international scientific/medical society of clinical laboratory professionals, physicians, research scientists and other individuals involved with clinical chemistry and other clinical laboratory science-related disciplines.
