Dec 28, 2012 | Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Physicians, including pathologists, will be able to see a more holistic picture of the mechanisms of disease using sophisticated computer-generated models
Medical diagnosis and treatment will be greatly influenced by the fast-growing field of computational medicine. It is a development with the potential to significantly change how physicians use clinical laboratory tests and anatomic pathology services.
Computational medicine describes how researchers are using sophisticated software tools to map highly complex biophysical and disease pathways. This cutting-edge imaging technology enhances their ability to decipher the complex, often non-intuitive dynamics of human disease. (more…)
Dec 26, 2012 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Clinical laboratories may see a reduction in the early-morning crowds of fasting patients who have come in for cholesterol testing
For the clinical laboratory testing industry, a new Canadian study suggesting that people may not need to fast before getting a cholesterol test could prove a boon for staffing and operations at patient service centers. That’s because fasting-patients crowd phlebotomy centers in the early morning hours to get their blood drawn so they can eat breakfast.
It is standard practice to require patients to fast before drawing blood specimens for a cholesterol test. However, based on a study involving 200,000 people, findings led researchers to conclude that a non-fasting lipid test would be a reasonable alternative for most people. (more…)
Dec 24, 2012 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Pathologists and clinical laboratory managers can expect to see more international press coverage of efforts to improve medical laboratory quality in developing countries
In some developing nations, the lack of reliable, accessible medical laboratory testing is getting wide coverage in the local press. This is true of recent events involving pathology laboratories located in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
Reliability and Accuracy of Medical Laboratory Test Results
In India, the convergence of two trends is spurring government action. First, both patients and their physicians are losing confidence in the reliability of medical laboratory test results.
Second, drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis (TB) have emerged in India. The spread of these strains from India into other countries is a major concern of public health officials in nations across the globe.
Meanwhile, there is a steady flow of news stories in Nepal and Sri Lanka about how inaccurate medical laboratory test results are causing great suffering and hardship. “Many people have similar stories…of suffering,” reported Nepal journalist and U.N. Indigenous Fellow, Dev Kumar Sunuwar.” (more…)
Dec 21, 2012 | Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Restructuring of hospital laboratories is an effort by government health programs to achieve economies of scale and, thereby reduce the cost of medical laboratory testing in England and Australia
Hospital-based clinical laboratories in both England and Australia are being closed by government health programs. These moves are intended to further consolidate medical laboratory testing into larger regional lab facilities and achieve lower costs through economies of scale.
This is being done at hospitals located in communities where the economies of scale don’t quite support the local provision of full-service clinical and pathology testing. Following announcements that a local hospital laboratory is to be downsized or consolidated, there is often pushback from community members and unions representing healthcare workers, including clinical laboratory scientists. (more…)
Dec 19, 2012 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Uncategorized
Change in who owns office-based physician groups is a trend which can create new winners and losers among the nation’s independent medical laboratories
Physicians today are more willing to practice medicine as employees than as partners or owners of their medical group. This signals a significant shift in the market for clinical laboratory testing and anatomic pathology services.
This new development will require that all medical laboratory organizations to rethink how they serve office-based physicians. New strategies will be required, both to better meet the clinical service needs of these employee-physicians, as well as to redirect sales and marketing programs to the new decision makers. (more…)
Dec 17, 2012 | Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Pathologists are positioned to be the primary interpreters of big data as genomic medicine further evolves
Pathologists and clinical laboratory managers may be surprised to learn that at least one data scientist has proclaimed pathologists the real big data rock stars of healthcare. The reason has to do with the shift in focus of genomic medicine from therapeutics and presymptomatic disease assessment to big data analytics.
In a recent posting published at Forbes.com, data scientist Jim Golden heralded the pronouncement of Harvard pathologist Mark S. Boguski, M.D., Ph.D., FACM. He declared that “The time of the $1,000 genome meme is over!” (more…)
