Mar 17, 2014 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Research breakthrough heralded as key insight that can lead to more accurate clinical laboratory tests and more effective antibiotics for treating E. Coli infections
Antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria are one of healthcare’s biggest threats to patient safety and improved patient outcomes. Now advanced gene sequencing has given researchers a startling new understanding of how Escherichia coli (E. coli) has developed resistance to antibiotics.
This discovery may have a major impact on microbiology labs in hospitals, because they do so much of the medical laboratory testing to detect and identify infections. These new research findings also demonstrate to pathologists how quickly genome analysis can generate new knowledge about diseases and their causes. (more…)
Feb 23, 2014 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the University of Minnesota is anticipating new clinical and operational needs of physicians practicing in ACOs and medical homes
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA—Academic pathology departments are facing a host of challenges as a direct result of the rapid pace of change happening today in the U.S. healthcare system. Some challenges are financial because of reduced funding. Other challenges are clinical or due to the formation of ACOs and similar types of integrated-care delivery organizations. (more…)
Dec 30, 2013 | Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
New insights about personal genomes will give pathologists and clinical laboratory scientists different ways to use genetic tests in the screening, diagnosis, and treatment of disease
Here is a human genome curve ball for pathologists and clinical laboratory scientists engaged in genetic testing in their medical laboratories. New research indicates that a larger number of humans than was once believed may have more than one genome. This has implications for many medical and health issues.
Until recently, scientists assumed that, as a rule, each individual had a unique genome. Conditions such as mosaicism and chimerism were considered a rarity.
Greater Incidence of Multiple Genomes in a Single Individual (more…)
Nov 6, 2013 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Digital Pathology, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Medical laboratories could benefit by fewer customers for U.S tissue diagnostics products
Even as anatomic pathology laboratories in the United States see a decline in reimbursement for many pathology testing services, the demand for tissue diagnostics products will continue to be robust in coming years. There are at least three reasons why this will be true.
Research analysts at Frost & Sullivan predict that global sales of tissue diagnostics products will grow from $2.4 billion in 2012 to $3.5 billion by 2017. They attribute this to the increased use of anatomic laboratory automation.
These predictions were made in a new report issued by Frost & Sullivan. About 79% of the global tissue processing market is in the United States and Europe. (more…)
Feb 25, 2013 | Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
‘National Agenda’ seeks to marshal efforts to sharpen the clinical impact of pathology in the genomics era
Pathologists are being urged to seize the high ground as the unfolding revolutions in genomics and bioinformatics create unprecedented capabilities to more accurately diagnose patients and guide the selection of appropriate therapies.
Two experts in these fields have come together to issue a call to action for the pathology profession, stating that pathologists need to be prepared for the sequencing revolution. “Revolution is not too strong a word; this is not incremental change,” declared Dennis P. Wall, Ph.D. and Peter J. Tonellato, Ph.D., in a recent story published in The Scientist. “The use of whole-genome analysis (WGA) can, should, and will replace many current standard pathology practices of diagnosis and prognosis on which proper therapy and disease management rely,” the co-authors asserted.
Wall is an associate professor and director of Computational Biology at Harvard Medical School (HMS). Tonellato is a professor and director of the Laboratory for Personalized Medicine at HMS. (more…)
