[Laboratory Medicine and Medical Team Approaches--Opening Remarks from the Chair].

Recently, medical team approaches were pointed out to be important in the field of laboratory medicine. The staff working in laboratory medicine needs to participate in various kinds of medical team such as ICT or NST. With such a background, the working group for medical teams was established in the Japanese Society of Laboratory Medicine in January 2012. Special program II was organized by this group at the 60th annual meeting held in Kobe in 2013. People gathered from representative societies related to laboratory medicine and discussed how we should participate in team approaches. Based on the results of meaningful discussions, we have reached a strong consensus to pursue team approaches in the future.