Experience with SI units in biochemistry.

Use of Système International d'Unités (SI) for laboratory measurements was instituted Jan. 1, 1975 at two community hospitals. Beforehand, talks were given, pamphlets, conversion tables, new calibration curves and new master record cards were printed, computer cards were reprogrammed and conversion kits were prepared; the total cost was less than $200. After 6 months 16% of the medical staff had stopped converting SI units into conventional units, 78% were still occasionally converting units and 6% were routinely converting units. Changeover had been difficult for 25%, only a nuisance for 49% and easy for 26%. The patients' lives were not endangered by conversion.