Haematology: This is also spelled as hematology and is a division of internal medicine, pathology, physiology, clinical lab work and pediatrics that is involved with the education of blood, the organs that form blood and diseases of the blood. Hematology includes etiology study, diagnosis, prognosis, treatment, as well as prevention of diseases of the blood. The lab work which involves the study of blood is often done by a medical technologist. Physicians who are involved with the study of blood are known as hematologists and also frequently do further study in oncology – which is the medical management of cancer.

“Blood diseases” involve the manufacture of blood and its various parts such as hemoglobin, blood cells, coagulation, blood proteins, etc.

Those physicians who specialize in hematology are referred to as hematologists. They work routinely with the treatment and care of individuals who have diseases involving the blood, although some may also work at the hematology lab viewing blood films as well as slides of bone marrow under the microscope, interpreting various test results.

In clinical labs, the department of hematology does numerous different tests on blood. The most common tests performed are the CBC or complete blood count also called FBC or full blood count. Studies of the coagulation of blood are a sub-specialty of hematology; basic coagulation tests are the PT or prothrombin time and PTT or partial thromboplastin time. Another hematology test that is common is the ESR or erythrocyte sedimentation rate.

In blood banks the Coombs test is the more commonly done test.