The OAML’s Guidelines for Clinical Laboratory Practice are intended to support improved patient outcomes by encouraging better-informed, clinically relevant decisions about laboratory test ordering and more effective use of health care resources. The OAML strives to improve the quality of patient care by providing community health care practitioners with information about laboratory tests to help ensure that the right test is ordered on the right person at the right time.  The Guidelines provide community health care practitioners with recommendations regarding which clinical situations warrant requesting a test, which test to order, limitations of the test, how to order the test, collect the specimen, and interpret the results.

The OAML, through its Quality Assurance of Clinical Laboratory Practice Committee, co-ordinates the development and dissemination, implementation and evaluation of Guidelines for Clinical Laboratory Practice. A proposed guideline is developed by a working group of the Committee with input from outside experts. The proposed guideline is then submitted to the Committee as a whole and comments are incorporated into a revision of the document. This draft may also be submitted to laboratory Medical Directors, professional associations and other representatives of end users for additional comment. The guideline may be revised in light of these comments and submitted to the OAML Board of Directors for approval. Guidelines are reviewed every 5 years, or as the literature warrants.

Approved Guidelines are distributed to Community Laboratories and by them to their client physicians and other practitioners ordering laboratory tests. There may be additional educational materials produced, if it is thought they might be useful, and these are distributed with the guideline. The guidelines are also available on the OAML’ website.

A printable version of the Framingham Risk Score worksheet included in the Canadian Cardiovascular Society’s (CCS), 2012 Dyslipidemia Guidelines supplemental material is available under the “Additional Resources” tab at http://www.ccs.ca/images/Guidelines/Tools_and_Calculators_En/Lipids_Gui_2012_FRS_Col_EN.pdf