Jan 25, 2012 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, News From Dark Daily
Genetic testing and molecular diagnostics will be essential to wider adoption of personalized medicine by nation’s physicians
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA—Here in Silicon Valley at the Personalized Medicine World Conference (PMWC), the role of clinical laboratory testing and anatomic pathology services was consistently recognized as essential in advancing this important healthcare trend. Yet, at the same time, few pathologists or clinical laboratory executives were in attendance.
Your Dark Daily Editor, Robert L. Michel, was here at PMWC this week to speak on the topic of how medical laboratories and pathology groups will be one primary—and important—channel for helping physicians adopt and use personalized medicine in their medical practice. In simplest terms, it is typically pathologists and clinical laboratory professionals who educate doctors about the availability of new clinical lab tests and how to use them in their practice of medicine.
In that role, the medical laboratory provides physicians with information on when to order these new assays, how to interpret the lab test results, and how to use those results to determine the most appropriate therapy. Yet, here at the Personalized Medicine World Conference, developers at biotech companies seem to be overlooking this long-established fact in the clinical care marketplace. (more…)
Oct 24, 2011 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Shortage of pathologists only adds to the challenges of providing high quality anatomic pathology testing services
DATELINE: Hangzhou, China—More than 1,200 Chinese pathologists and medical laboratory scientists assembled this weekend in a city marked by 1,500 years of history. The occasion was the first-ever combined meeting of the Chinese Society of Pathology and the Pathology Branch of the Chinese Medical Association.
Across the globe, pathologists and clinical laboratory professionals regularly hear about the rapid economic growth in China. This country is modernizing at an astounding rate and the evidence is easy to see in its major cities. That is certainly true here in Hanghzou, which has a population of 8.7 million people and is the anchor city for Zhejiang Province, with a population of approximately 54.4 million. It has many new buildings in its downtown and construction cranes are visible in every direction.
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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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Jul 25, 2011 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Mayo Clinic to support one of China’s largest clinical laboratory companies
In a trans-Pacific Ocean collaboration with major implications, two important players in clinical laboratory and anatomic pathology testing in their respective countries have inked a multi-year pact. On June 27, 2011, Mayo Clinic of Rochester, Minnesota, announced its agreement with Wuhan Kindstar Globalgene Technology, Inc. (Kindstar), of Wuhan, Hubei Province, China.
In the press release it issued about the agreement, Mayo Clinic said that it would support Kindstar by providing “specialized laboratory support based on provision of knowledge from Mayo Clinic’s Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology and its reference laboratory, Mayo Medical Laboratories.” Mayo Clinic also said that it will receive equity in Kindstar and had participated in Kindstar’s Series B financing, which raised approximately U.S. $11 million.
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May 19, 2011 | Laboratory Pathology, News From Dark Daily
IVD manufacturers often introduce their newest technologies in Europe before the United States
DATELINE: BERLIN, GERMANY: With so many changes happening to clinical pathology laboratory testing in developed nations around the world, there is keen interest in evolving technologies, along with new medical laboratory instruments and automation products that clinical biochemists and pathologists will use, in the near future, to improve the quality of the clinical laboratory testing services they provide to physicians.
Here at the IFCC-WorldLab Berlin 2011 conference, pathologists and clinical chemists from the United States got an early peek at some of the latest and newest solutions developed by the world’s largest in vitro diagnostics (IVD) manufacturers. Many products on display at the IFCC WorldLab Exhibition have only been cleared for sale by the European Union. These products do not have clearance by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States for sale and use in this country.
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