Published on February 5, 2025

I don't know what they intend with the glamorization of a profession whose academic training is meager when compared to that of pharmacy and medical graduates.

An example of this is the discipline of bacteriology. In the biomedicine course at UFPR, the workload is 90 hours of a single discipline called microbiology, while in the pharmacy course there are three disciplines. One, in the basic cycle, called microbiology applied to pharmacy, which is common with the medical course, and two other disciplines called bacteriology I and II, with 90 hours each, that is, 270 hours.

Biomedical scientists do not have basic training in the synthesis of medicines, reagents and radioisotopes, which are exclusive attributions of pharmacists and, if any of the automated clinical analysis equipment, in which only buttons are pressed, something that any mid-level technician is capable of doing just by reading the machine manual, gives some alteration in the results due to problems with reagents or physical constants, they will probably not even notice and will give reports that could even lead to erroneous medical diagnoses and treatments that put patients at risk.

A quick query to "Saint Google" returned the following about licensing clinical analysis laboratories:

Regional Pharmacy Council (CRF) inspects and regulates clinical analysis laboratories. The CRF is responsible for ensuring that establishments comply with the rules and regulations related to the handling and dispensing of medicines.

How does the licensing process for clinical analysis laboratories work?

1. The establishment's legal representative must carry out the licensing procedure at the CRF;
2. The CRF analyzes the procedures filed and issues an indication of regularity or irregularity;
3. If the documentation is incomplete, the CRF informs the correction return in the protocol;
4. If the establishment does not respond to the correction return within 1 business day, the request is denied.

Other bodies that regulate clinical analysis laboratories:

Anvisa has updated the norms that deal with the technical requirements for the operation of clinical analysis laboratories;

The Regional Council of Medicine of the State of São Paulo (CREMESP) has a Technical Regulation for the operation of Clinical Laboratories.

As provided for in Decree-Law 85.878/81, which establishes the scope of the pharmaceutical profession, in force to this day, the clinical analysis laboratory is an attribution akin to physicians and biochemist-pharmacists, and no other profession is listed in the decree as holding attributions in the specialty.

The federal councils of medicine and pharmacy should pay attention to this. Read more here