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Clinical microbiology is a dynamic field that offers many licensed professionals rewarding careers that have a direct impact on patient care. Alternative careers include numerous opportunities for bachelors, masters, and doctoral level scientists in the biotechnology industry, which also impacts human health. Understanding if you are interested in an industry position or where you can apply your skill set outside the routine laboratory is important for deciding a future career path. This article explores the diagnostic life cycle of a commercial product and its stakeholders, as well as providing insight into some of the roles a career in industry can offer those looking to take their clinical microbiology experience outside the clinical laboratory.

Technology continues to have a major impact on the way that laboratory medicine is practiced. Automation, culture-independent pathogen detection methods, and rapid antimicrobial susceptibility testing are all influencing practice in the clinical microbiology laboratory and treatment of patients in the clinical practice arena. The mining of big data and its ability to guide clinical decisions through artificial intelligence and machine learning will continue to alter the value assigned to laboratory medicine. This editorial explores these changes and the challenges they pose to investigate the skill set that will be required from this and the next generation of laboratory leaders to successfully leverage the role of the clinical microbiology laboratory in a post-technology world.

Technology for modern clinical and public health microbiology laboratories has evolved at an impressive rate over the last two decades. Contemporary diagnostics can rapidly provide powerful data that can impact patient lives and support infectious disease outbreak investigations. At the same time, dramatic changes to health care delivery are putting new pressures on a system that is now focusing on patient-centric, value-driven, convenient care. For laboratories, balancing all these demands in a cost-contained environment remains a challenge. This article explores the current and future directions of diagnostics in our dynamic health care environment.

In today's health care environment, laboratories are increasingly being asked to justify the acquisition of new technology. Justification is often done through a formal business case analysis. One important component of the business case is being able to show outcomes and impacts on patient care. Patient outcomes are becoming a focus of investigation following implementation of new technology and a key component to building a strong business case for that technology. Given that new technology is often more expensive than an add-on test to traditional work-ups, its true value is not fully appreciated unless it is evaluated over the continuum of care. This article discusses how to prepare a business case for the administration and key strategic considerations to create a value-driven laboratory.

The impact of rapid polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology on infectious-disease testing is continuing to evolve outside the realm of a centralized laboratory. The GeneXpert Dx system is the first unit dose, near-point-of-care, molecular device commercially available. Part I of this two-part article addressed the use of the GeneXpert system for the detection of group B Streptococcus, enterovirus, and methicillin-resistant and methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus in various clinical specimens. Part II of this article will review the advantages and disadvantages of conventional culture methods and alternative molecular technologies along with the GeneXpert system, for the detection of these microorganisms in clinical specimens.