Sep 17, 2016 | Digital Pathology, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing
Increased understanding of the genetic basis of an individual’s response to drugs, including how and how quickly a drug is metabolized (pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics), has created rich opportunities for the establishment and expansion of PgX services.
Expertise such as this that is beyond traditional lab medicine is crucial to the future success
of your laboratory.
Pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics have opened the door to a progressively personalized approach to drug prescription. By identifying drugs most likely to benefit a patient, assessing the likely dose response, potentially avoiding adverse reactions, and reducing unnecessary use of drugs, pharmacogenomics testing (PgX) has helped optimize treatment and reduce costs associated with complications or inappropriate utilization.
As research demonstrating the clinical utility and associated health economics benefits of PgX has grown—along with the soaring trend toward value-based healthcare—PgX services are now on the path to becoming the standard of care. This demand for PgX presents a tremendous opportunity for clinical laboratories, many of which have already over the last few years successfully launched PgX services, and enjoyed robust growth. (more…)
Sep 16, 2016 | Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing
Clinical laboratory assays based on low-cost paper strip tests could make detecting malaria easier in rural areas of Africa and Southeast Asia
In the field of remote medical pathology, diagnostic tests strips made from paper can provide low-cost, simple-to-perform testing in developing nations. These are regions where such diagnostic test capabilities are desperately needed by medical laboratory scientists and resource-strapped clinical laboratories.
One such example is a new paper strip test that can detect malaria for people in rural areas of Africa and southeast Asia. Such tests could also lower the cost of diagnostic testing in other parts of the world. Research teams have been working on various paper-based tests for at least the last decade. (more…)
Sep 9, 2016 | Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing
Offering lower costs and quicker returns than much of the traditional lab equipment in use today, lab-on-a-chip devices are again in a position to revolutionize pathology and medical laboratory work
For nearly 20 years, researchers have heralded microfluidic devices, paper-based diagnostics, and other lab-on-a-chip (LOC) technologies, as ways for medical laboratory scientists, pathologists, and other medical diagnostic professionals to reduce the time and costs of clinical laboratory services. With the promise of obtaining results in just minutes without the need for extensive training, these point-of-care tests and devices create big buzz with each new design.
An yet, after all that progress, most laboratories still depend on their spectrometers, flow cytometers, blood analyzers, and other equipment for the bulk of their testing and routines.
That leaves one major question for clinical laboratory professionals and chip developers alike—when is the revolution? (more…)
Sep 2, 2016 | Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations
Companies are exploring creative ways to use genetic testing and counseling to improve the health of their employees demonstrating increasing trust in genetic science
Genetic testing has been a product offered by distributors of Amway Global of Ada, Mich., since 2009. Now Amway is launching a program to provide certain genetic tests to its employees working within the United States.
More than 5,000 Amway employees can take advantage of this genetic testing as an innovative benefit. Through its partnership with Interleukin Genetics (NYSE Amex: ILI), a genetics-based health company headquartered in Waltham, Mass., Amway seeks to empower its personnel to assess their genetic risk for chronic inflammation, which can lead to disease. (more…)
Aug 26, 2016 | Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing
FDA issues press release following clearance of a clinical lab test to detect genetic markers that indicate the presence of Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae
Clearance by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of a new rapid, multi-marker genetic test designed to identify bacteria that are resistant to Carbapenem antibiotics was considered significant enough that the federal agency issued a press release announcing that the test was cleared and now available for use by physicians and clinical laboratories in the United States.
In the race to develop molecular assays and genetic tests for infectious disease that deliver improved sensitivity and specificity with a faster time-to-answer, this new test offers all three benefits. Results are available in just 48 minutes, for example.
It was on June 29, 2016, that the FDA cleared Cepheid’s Xpert Carba-R rapid-diagnostic test for marketing in the United States. This is the first clinical laboratory test cleared for market by the FDA that detects healthcare-associated infections (AKA, hospital-acquired infections or HAIs) through the use of genetic markers taken directly from clinical samples. The assay tests for genetic markers that indicate the presence of Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE). (more…)
Aug 19, 2016 | Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing
High-powered hand dryers, like the ones used in public restrooms, are the latest pawns in the relentless pursuit to repulse individuals fixated on cleanliness
For decades, microbiologists have regularly fanned out in hospitals and swabbed the hands of doctors, nurses, and staff, to demonstrate how often infectious agents get passed on to patients through interactions with their caregivers (due to lack of proper handwashing procedures prior to entering a patient’s hospital room, for example). One thing that was a regular on these fishing expeditions was to swab the ties worn by physicians and report on the interesting and disturbing array of infectious agents that were found.
Well, the microbiologists are at it again! After studying hand drying techniques, researchers at The University of Westminster in London determined that high-powered jet air dryers can act like “virus hand grenades.” (more…)
