Aspects of the development of clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine in the former East Germany.

Clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine developed rapidly in the industrialised world after the Second World War, as evidenced by the recruitment of physicians and natural scientists, the intensive development of methods and technologies, the founding of societies such as the IFCC, and the organisation of scientific life. In East Germany a working group of clinical pathologists and chemists came together in 1960, out of which grew the Gesellschaft für Klinische Chemie und Laboratoriumsdiagnostik (Society for Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Diagnostics) in 1968. Within the socialist health care system laboratory services were structured in a pyramid form based on the country's governmental districts. Each local diagnostic laboratory was part of a hierarchy; tests not possible in local laboratories were performed in larger ones. Groups of experts prescribed standardised methods and recommendations of quality control were administered at the district level. However, the funding of this quite acceptable structure was insufficient, resulting in difficulties. Although the development of equipment was carried out in close cooperation with users, it was hindered by shortages extant in the socialist economy. Postgraduate training of physicians, natural scientists, technicians and laboratory assistants was well organised, and clinical chemistry and pathobiochemistry were well established in the medical curriculum.