Jane Carter. Good clinical diagnostic practice. Cairo, World Health Organization, 2005.

The range of diseases that affect and afflict humans continues to hinder development in many parts of the world from communicable diseases to noncommunicable diseases, genetic diseases to lifestyle-related and behavioural diseases, those induced by hardship and by poverty to those induced by affluence, and those that result from natural and man-made disasters. Clinical diagnostic services provide physicians with a wide range of tools to help in their decision-making regarding appropriate treatment of all types of disease for their patients. At the same time, health technology is becoming more and more sophisticated throughout the world, including many parts of the developing world. However, diagnostic investigation of disease, whether by laboratory services or imaging services, becomes more expensive every year.