A Brief History

Microlabs Limited was incorporated in February 1974 at 5 Tangerine Place in Kingston, Jamaica. Our laboratory started with a team of two medical technologists and an accountant. Later we expanded to include a microbiologist and a third technologist.

The original concept of the laboratory was specialty clinical and industrial microbiology. In this respect the laboratory offered a wide variety of exotic services including culture for mycoplasma, trichomonas, entomeba and the common food poisoning and spoilage organisms. The laboratory soon achieved recognition after we passed a rigid quality control assessment conducted by the Gillette Corporation and was chosen as one of the few laboratories worldwide to do independent microanalysis on their entire product range.

Doctors in Kingston soon started to demand a full diagnostic service. We expanded the laboratory in late 1974 to include clinical chemistry and hematology. We also introduced densitometric scanning of electrophoresis patterns so that physicians could have permanent records of patients’ results. Our electrophoresis department had many firsts in the island; these included isoenzymes of LDH, CPK, Alk Phos as well as lipoproteins and immunoelectrophoresis.