Five Years Later – How COVID-19 Transformed Clinical Laboratories
SUMMARY
MLO-online.com | March 2025
It’s been five years since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic in March 2020. This global health crisis fundamentally reshaped clinical laboratories, accelerating advancements in diagnostic testing capabilities, capacity, and automation.
With the benefit of hindsight, MLO’s Christina Wichmann explores some of the key ways COVID-19 transformed clinical laboratories: by expanding testing infrastructure, integrating automation and digital health solutions, increasing supplier diversity for improved agility and resilience, and better educating patients and the public about the value of diagnostic testing. In the article, she notes how the pandemic also highlighted the role of molecular diagnostics—particularly PCR solutions—in responding to emerging infectious diseases.
Together, these shifts have not only enhanced laboratory efficiency, but also improved quality control and safety measures while strengthening global preparedness for future public health challenges.
FEATURED EXPERT
Christina Wichmann, Editor-in-Chief Medical Laboratory Observer
GET STARTED
Clinical labs are better equipped to handle healthcare diagnostic needs because of COVID-19.
