iLABMED, why now and how in the future?

Abstract

Nowadays, public health is facing many challenges, mainly including non-communicable diseases and communicable diseases. Communicable diseases, particularly emerging infectious diseases, have also attracted attention due to their enormous impact on public health and the global economy. The most prominent example is the current global Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The unprecedented and ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the necessity for readily available, accurate, and rapid laboratory medicine (LM) practices. Nevertheless, current LMs and journals in particular have a window for improvement. First, there are limited numbers of professionals available in this field compared to the other disciplines. The current status quo is that most LM manuscripts must be submitted to comprehensive journals or other journals related to the research disease. Second, most LM journals are run by laboratory personnel who are often more concerned with technical advances than with clinical needs. Lastly, several young LM scientists expressed their desire to have a dedicated platform to discuss, communicate, and publish their works on LM. We were therefore motivated to launch iLABMED, an international public forum dedicated to LMs. The establishment of iLABMED adopts the “four I” strategy, namely “Innovation,” “Intelligence,” “Integration,” and “International.” We are attempting to establish a top-tier journal in the field of LM.