1. An individual working in a clinical chemistry laboratory is married to a sales representative
who works for a company that sells chemistry laboratory
... [Show More] supplies. When the laboratory
manager requests a list of needed supplies, cost of supplies, and vendors, this individual only
recommends the spouse’s company as the vendor. This is considered to be a(n):
a. accounting issue.
b. possible conflict of interest.
c. maintenance of confidentiality issue.
d. problem with resource allocation.
ANS: B
Concern has been raised over the interrelationships between practitioners in the medical field
and commercial suppliers of drugs, devices, equipment, etc., to the medical profession.
Similarly, relationships have been scrutinized between clinical laboratorians and
manufacturers and providers of diagnostic equipment and supplies. These concerns led the
National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 1995 to require official institutional review of financial
disclosure by researchers and management of situations in which disclosure indicates potential
conflicts of interest.
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2. A patient visits her physician stating that her prescribed painkiller is not working to reduce the
pain following her recent surgery. A friend of the patient claims that the same painkiller
“worked wonders” to reduce her pain after the same surgery. The physician states that the
difference in the effect of the drug might be caused by , which is studied in
pharmacogenetics.
a. epidemiology
b. an inherited disease
c. a conflict of interest
d. a genetic variation in drug-metabolizing enzymes
ANS: D
Pharmacogenetics is the study of the genetic variation of drug metabolism between
individuals.
DIF: 1 REF: Page 3 OBJ: 1
3. John works in a molecular diagnostics laboratory and receives a blood sample that has the
name of a close friend printed on the bar-coded label. The genetic test that is ordered on the
friend’s sample would provide diagnostic information about a disorder that has a poor
prognosis, and the test is usually performed by John. He asks a fellow employee to analyze
the sample for him and not divulge the results. This ethical issue concerns:
a. confidentiality of patient genetic and medical information.
b. a conflict of interest.
c. resource allocation.
d. diagnostic accuracy.
ANS: A
Clinical laboratorians have long been responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of all
laboratory results, a situation made even more critical with the advent of increasingly
powerful genetic testing.
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4. Molecular diagnostic testing methods and results can be:
a. qualitative only.
b. quantitative only.
c. either qualitative or quantitative.
ANS: C
Molecular diagnostic methods can be either qualitative or quantitative in nature, depending on
the clinical need.
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5. Clinical epidemiology, which is the study of the patterns, causes, and effects of health and
disease in certain populations, has provided the clinical laboratory with methods that evaluate
the effects and outcomes of laboratory testing. This allows for a more effective:
a. process of determining the cost of the testing methods.
b. selection and interpretation of laboratory tests.
c. determination of the boundaries between the components of the clinical lab.
d. conduct assessment.
ANS: A
Clinical epidemiologists have introduced methods to evaluate the effects and value of
laboratory testing in healthcare. These developments are expected to play an increasing role in
the selection and interpretation of laboratory tests. [Show Less]