One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done. --Marie Curie Major forces are reshaping organizations throughout the world, and information technology (IT)[1] is one of the most important of these forces. The goals of this report are (a) to describe the ways in which IT, the Internet, and the Web are modifying the clinical laboratory industry and (b) to show how IT is enabling a new model for the laboratory industry based on a vertical laboratory meta-network, which will be referred to here as the "total laboratory solution" (TLS). Hybrids of the TLS have been in existence for years, but IT is now facilitating the emergence of a vertical laboratory meta-network with multiple participants, each contributing in its area of core competency, that will provide total support for both laboratory testing and laboratory information management for an entire hospital system.
