Jul 29, 2011 | Laboratory Pathology, News From Dark Daily
Lots of products involving molecular diagnostics and genetic testing were on display at the exhibition
DATELINE: Atlanta, Georgia—Yesterday was the close of the 2011 annual meeting of the American Association of Clinical Chemistry (AACC). Organizers played host to what—pre-event—they announced was a record-breaking number of exhibit booths sold to vendors at the exhibition. Despite a rather quiet economy, there was plenty of traffic and much interest in products on display in the clinical laboratory.
Many lab industry vendors believe that there is pent-up demand by medical laboratories because of the long recession in 2008 and 2009, combined with the clamp-down on laboratory spending that resulted as hospitals and health systems slashed budgets during the recession to protect their cash flows. But now, having deferred equipment replacement for up to three full years, a number of clinical pathology laboratories have returned to the marketplace to acquire new medical laboratory testing equipment.
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Aug 2, 2010 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Many new in vitro diagnostics companies show their products last week in Anaheim
It’s a troubling fact that most health policymakers in the public and private sectors continue to handle clinical pathology laboratory testing as a commodity. That often translates into health insurance programs paying medical laboratories ever less money for the tests they provide. Under-reimbursement for lab tests is a threat to the integrity of laboratory medicine in this country.
However, two groups in our country think differently than this group of health policymakers. These are patients and Wall Street investors. Individuals in both groups are closely tracking advances in laboratory testing and laboratory medicine that positively affect patient care. They know the clinical and economic benefit of using new clinical lab test technology for the right patient at the right time.
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Jul 29, 2010 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Speakers from the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada provide useful prospectives
Too often, pathology laboratory testing is treated as a commodity by government health officials in the United States and other countries. But treating lab testing as a commodity has negative long-term consequences for health systems which try to pay the cheapest price for medical laboratory testing.
As pathologists and clinical laboratory managers know all too well, clinical pathology laboratory testing delivers incredible value when physicians order the right test and do the appropriate thing with the lab test results. Examples abound where proper use of laboratory testing contributes to improved patient outcomes while reducing the overall cost per episode of care.
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