Jan 18, 2013 | Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
In the future, pathologists and clinical laboratory administrators may need to plan for a canine addition to their traditional laboratory staff
See Cliff sniff C. diff! No, that’s not a line from a new reading primer. In fact, it refers to one hospital’s innovation for early detection of Clostridium difficile (C. diff): a two-year-old beagle named Cliff. Cliff the Beagle is faster at detecting certain infections than the standard clinical laboratory tests used daily in hospitals throughout the world.
Researchers from Vrije University Medical Center (VUMC) in Amsterdam successfully used the trained beagle to detect the smell of C. difficile in hospitals. The researchers believe trained canine disease detectives like Cliff could be a cheap and effective way to conduct routine C. diff screening in hospitals. (more…)
Nov 14, 2012 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
News accounts of medical laboratory test errors is one reason why patients and clinical laboratory professionals in developing nations are calling for corrective action
From Kenya to the Caribbean, clinical laboratory testing failures are making national news. It is both patients and professional associations of laboratory workers who are fueling public debate and government action in response to public disclosures about patient harm as a consequence of errors in medical laboratories testing.
Clinical Laboratory Stakeholder Conferences Calling For Change
In Nairobi, Kenya, pathologists and clinical laboratory professionals gathered recently for a first-of-its-kind meeting of the Medical Laboratory Stakeholders Forum (MLSF). (more…)
Sep 17, 2012 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Expanded universal screening would increase costs to the healthcare system; would the healthcare system shortchange clinical labs inadequate reimbursement for the increased number of screening tests?
Separate recommendations that call for widespread, regular screening for HIV and hepatitis C can be considered to be good news/bad news stories for the clinical laboratory testing industry. That’s because the benefits in patient health are likely to incur additional costs for which the healthcare system is not likely to fully reimburse the medical laboratories performing these screening tests.
To improve detection and diagnosis of HIV, a story published in Reuters reported that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) will issue a new recommendation to make human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) screening a standard practice. Experts believe that such a strategy would fundamentally change how the virus is detected and treated. (more…)
Jul 23, 2012 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Digital Pathology, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Uncategorized
New database of diabetes patients opens door for pathologists to improve existing medical laboratory testing algorithms
Integration of healthcare informatics is proceeding at a brisk pace. The latest evidence comes from 11 highly-respected integrated health systems that are pooling data to create the largest, most comprehensive private-sector diabetes registry in the country. It will contain information from 1.1 million diabetic patients.
For clinical laboratory managers and pathologists, this “super diabetes database” demonstrates that many multi-hospital health systems are now willing to pool patient data to make it easier to identify clinical trends. This data will also be used to develop more sophisticated evidence-based medicine (EBM) guidelines—many of which will involve better utilization of medical laboratory tests.
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May 25, 2012 | Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Sensitivity and specificity of test kit for over-the-counter sale does not equal that of HIV assays performed in licensed and accredited clinical laboratories
Despite concerns about the potential for false positive results, an in-home rapid HIV test kit designed to be sold to consumers in pharmacies and other retail outlets cleared one more hurdle on the path to winning clearance by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to come to market.
On May 15, the 17 voting members of FDA’s Blood Products Advisory Committee (BPAC), concluded that the benefits of the OraQuick in-home HIV test outweigh the potential risks for consumers, according to a story published at cbsnews.com. The FDA advisory panel’s decision came despite earlier reported concerns regarding decreased accuracy of the OTC test when performed by consumers as compared to results from the professional-use version.
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