The cardiac injury panel as an experimental model for a test evaluation program.

The authors devised a system of identification of specially designated laboratory tests to allow physicians and laboratory personnel to evaluate the clinical usefulness of lab procedures. They named this system Test Evaluation Program. Although most of the data are available from the literature, it is the cooperative effort between clinicians and laboratory staff at the individual hospital level which will allow rational utilization of lab procedures and which will, in future, eliminate unnecessary costly overutilization.