Laboratory medicine is essential to modern medicine. It provides scientifically-based evidences and access to the verification or exclusion of certain diagnoses, guides or monitors medical treatments, and evaluates the severity and prognosis of diseases. It is also invaluable in mass screening and investigating the risk factors of major systemic disorders, and thus can promote human health through detecting and treating diseases in early or preclinical stages.

In National Taiwan University Hospital, before World War II, laboratory tests were developed by physicians in clinical departments and were usually performed by junior attending physicians. In order to provide the basic and advanced medical tests for the purpose of patient care and to educate medical and medical technology students, the Department of Laboratory Diagnosis and the School of Medical Technology of the College of Medicine of National Taiwan University were established in August, 1956. The Department of Laboratory Diagnosis changed its name to the Department of Laboratory Medicine in 1994. (The School of Medical Technology changed its name to the Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences and Medical Biotechnology in 2005.)

The Department of Laboratory Medicine consists of division of Biochemistry, Hematology, Microbiology, Virology, Transfusion and Transplantation, STAT Laboratory, Clinical Microscopy, Cytology, Blood sampling, Electrocardiography, Molecular Diagnostics, Immunology, and Quality Control.

Our department has high-quality faculties, who are competent to lead medical technicians of the laboratory medicine, to educate medical and medical technology students, and to provide professional consultations and essential information to clinicians for patient care. Our department also has highly qualified facilities, which can provide not only essential laboratory tests for patient care but also clinical and scientific researches.