Sep 16, 2015 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Digital Pathology, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Experts believe compressive sensing could find wide application in medical laboratory and pathology testing, particularly where large amounts of data are generated
Pathologists and medical laboratory managers may soon be working with a new tool in their labs. It is called “Compressive Sensing” (CS) and it is an innovative mathematical approach that quickly and efficiently gets an answer by sampling large volumes of a data.
Currently compressive sensing is used in medical imaging technology. CS reduces radiation and speeds up imaging diagnostics. Some experts familiar with this technology believe that it can be used in those clinical laboratories that are working with new diagnostic technologies that generate large volumes of data. CS could dramatically reduce times to analyze results and lower the cost of expensive tests like whole-genome sequencing. (more…)
Sep 14, 2015 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing
There’s even a company called Translational Software providing a service to incorporate enriched information about such tests into the reports that labs deliver to doctors
Personalized medicine is the good news story in healthcare and clinical laboratory medicine today. Armed with new understanding about the human genome, physicians are able to customize therapies for patients that will produce the best outcomes while avoiding or minimizing the negative side effects associated with many common prescription drugs.
This is why pharmacogenomics testing is a booming segment of the clinical laboratory industry. On its website, the Duke Center for Personalized and Precision Medicine describes this emerging lab medicine specialty as follows: “Pharmacogenomic tests are used to inform dosing and predict efficacy and adverse events for therapeutic agents. Most tests involve genetic testing, and in the case of cancer, both the DNA of the host and the tumor can be used to inform the choices for treatment.” (more…)
Sep 4, 2015 | Digital Pathology, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
New device is designed to perform clinical laboratory testing by using nanoelectronic technology to measure multiple diagnostic parameters in patients’ homes
Researchers have developed yet another device that takes its readings from a patient’s internal bio-markers. This devices analyzes, then transmits the data directly to doctors’ smartphones to assist in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. Developers say use of this system may potentially enable doctors to treat patients in their homes without meeting with them in person.
Mobile Wireless System Designed to Help Patients with Chronic Illnesses
For pathologists and clinical laboratory managers, this research is another example of how technology can be used to take diagnostic testing out of centralized laboratories and put it closer to the patient. This particular miniature device is part of a mobile wireless system designed to aid the elderly and those with chronic illnesses remain independent by allowing continuous monitoring in the home and helping physicians diagnose problems including myocardial infarction early.
The technology for this home-testing system was co-developed by researchers from Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology and researchers from Berlin Charité, T-Systems, and multiple international partners in the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)/EU-funded project Nanoelectronics for Mobile AAL Systems (MAS). (more…)
Aug 26, 2015 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Sales and Marketing, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations, News From Dark Daily
In provinces across Canada, health systems are dealing with limited budgets, growing populations, and the need to transition to personalized medicine
Medical laboratories in Canada have something in common with medical laboratories in most other developed nations. Demand for healthcare services exceeds capacity, even as the healthcare system struggles to find adequate funding. This puts pathology labs in a bind, since they are asked to test growing numbers of specimens even as budgets are flat or shrinking.
That means the biggest two challenges facing labs in Canada will be familiar to pathologists, clinical chemists and medical laboratory scientists in almost every other developed nation across the globe. One challenge is how to meet the steady annual increase in lab specimens that must be tested. The second challenge is how to do that additional testing even as government health systems are forced to trim budgets year after year. (more…)
Aug 24, 2015 | Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
In just eight months, Iggbo claims to have 4,000 phlebotomists participating and is now operating in 18 states
Even as Uber and Lyft are bringing a new business model to the taxicab business, a group of entrepreneurs in Virginia want to do the same thing to the phlebotomy services offered by clinical laboratories. Since launching this service in January, the new phlebotomy company operates in 18 states.
The company is called Iggbo. It describes itself as an on-demand anytime/anywhere blood draw service and hopes to streamline the way blood samples move from patients to medical laboratories as the start-up looks to revolutionize phlebotomy the way Uber disrupted taxi service.
Based in Richmond, VA, Iggbo is introducing the sharing economy to the laboratory test collection process, a move that could benefit independent clinical laboratories and pathology groups that join Iggbo’s growing network of labs and independent phlebotomists. (more…)
Aug 19, 2015 | Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations
Sequencing this new DNA standard reference material enables medical laboratories to verify if their DNA test results are accurate
To reduce the variability in genetic test results that has been observed across different clinical laboratories and pathology groups, the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) has introduced a new standard DNA reference. This is another step forward to improve transparency in the quality and accuracy of genetic test results produced by medical laboratories in the United States and abroad.
Even as scientists continue to identify genetic mutations that could cause various cancers and other diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and cystic fibrous, studies have demonstrated that DNA test results from the same specimen can vary depending on which medical laboratory performs the whole-genome sequencing analysis. This is partly due to variances in the technology, chemicals and processes used for the testing. Therefore, ensuring consistently reliable test results has been difficult, which could lead to inaccurate or missed diagnoses.
That is why a new standard DNA reference material developed by the National Institute for Standards and Technology has the potential to help DNA sequencing facilities to verify if their DNA test results are accurate. The new reference material, NIST RM 8398, was designed to improve the accuracy of diagnostic laboratories that analyze DNA using “next-generation sequencing” (NGS) technology. (more…)
