Recent advances in Clinical Microbiology

Clinical microbiology is concerned with all aspects of patient infections, from testing samples to identifying bacterial, viral, fungal, and parasitic agents involved in the infectious process, to determining microorganism susceptibility to various antimicrobial agents, and reporting the results to healthcare providers. Traditional diagnostic methods including culture, Gram staining, and biochemical testing are used in the clinical microbiology laboratory. Accurate testing requires the receipt of a high-quality specimen with an acceptable test order. Recent technological developments have resulted in a reduction in the time it takes to get results and an increase in diagnostic accuracy.