Laboratory tests are among the most important and pervasive aspects of modern medicine. The majority of health care decisions, from diagnosis through therapy and prognosis, are derived from clinical laboratory tests.

"There's scarcely a patient in my practice who hasn't had lab tests," says Dr. Scott Luria, an internal medicine physician and associate professor at the University of Vermont. For some conditions, there is just no substitute for a laboratory test. For example, high cholesterol can be identified through lab work long before any symptoms might appear.

Physicians rely on the laboratory for help in diagnosing any number of conditions and for managing their treatment. They trust the results that labs produce. But you've probably seen headlines or heard horror stories about patients who suffered dire consequences, such as unnecessary surgery or even death, as a result of inaccurate lab test results or incorrect interpretation of the results. So, a reasonable question for any patient is: should I trust my laboratory results?

The short answer is yes, you can have as much trust in these results as your doctor does. There are many protections in place to ensure that laboratories produce reliable results. These have been instituted by federal and state government, laboratory professional organizations, and individual labs themselves to help maintain standards of quality. In addition, there are steps that you personally can take to further increase your comfort with the quality of your lab results, including questions that you can ask your health care provider.