Mar 20, 2009 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Government efforts to reduce funding for lab tests may boomerang in coming years
Dateline: Christchurch, New Zealand-Here in the land of kiwis and enthusiastic rugby fans, pathology and laboratory services don’t seem to get much respect from regional health districts of the New Zealand Department of Health. There are fears that too much of this type of budget cutting will undermine the quality of laboratory testing in those communities.
In at least two major metropolitan regions of New Zealand, the regional health districts are using single-source tenders (contract bidding) for pathology and laboratory testing services as a way to drive down the price they pay for laboratory testing. One consequence of these tender efforts is an immediate reduction in the number of private pathology testing providers in these cities, since just one medical laboratory is granted an exclusive, multi-year contract to provide laboratory testing services to office-based physicians across that region.
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Mar 18, 2009 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Pathologists Discuss State of Genetic Testing at World Congress of Pathology
Dateline: Sydney, Australia- New-fangled technology is making genetic testing and molecular diagnostics ever more precise tools to aid clinicians, but at least two internationally-respected experts in genetics still consider family history to be a primary-if not the most useful-source of knowledge about a patient’s genetic risk factors. Both experts were in Sydney, Australia, to speak at the XXV World Congress of Pathology which took place on March 13-15, 2009.
“Family history remains the most valuable genetic test available to us today,” declared Michael S. Watson, Ph.D., Executive Director of the American College of Medical Genetics in Rockville, Maryland, in his presentation titled “Translation of Genetic Information into Healthcare Use.” He discussed the importance of building a multi-dimensional health record that included family history and would follow the patient from cradle to grave. (more…)
Mar 16, 2009 | Digital Pathology, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Changes to profession are working their way into the clinical marketplace
Despite rapid advances in many areas of diagnostic services, most pathologists practicing in community hospitals continue to enjoy a familiar daily routine that has varied little over the past decade. That is about to quickly change, if Dark Daily’s assessment of new technologies and new market forces is accurate.
At least four powerful forces are poised to radically alter the daily workflow and activities of surgical pathologists in community practice settings:
- One, Dark Daily predicts that there will be a rapid uptake in clinical practice of new molecular assays for primary diagnosis of a growing number of cancers. Many of these new molecular assays will involve computer-aided diagnosis of the image, or will incorporate pattern recognition features to guide the pathologists to a very precise answer. The net effect of these developments is that surgical pathologists will rely less on the microscope as the primary tool. Rather, more cancer cases will be diagnosed using a combination of standard microscopy and other assays or techniques.
- Two, Dark Daily predicts that revolutionary changes in the histology laboratory will finally address the variability in the quality of specimen processing and preparation-both within a histology laboratory and across other histology laboratories within a region. Key trends here are use of Lean and similar work flow optimization methods in support of histology automation solutions.
- Three, Dark Daily also predicts that these changes in histology will end the reign of “batch” processing of specimens, often using overnight processing methods. Instead, histology laboratories will be organized around single-piece work flow, using rapid processing methods. In turn, that will change the daily routine of pathologists served by the histology laboratory. No longer will they start their day with a tall stack of yesterday’s case referrals and the pressure to work through the cases as early in the day as possible. Instead, rapid histology processing in small batches and single piece work flow will feed same-day case referrals to the pathologist evenly from morning through afternoon.
- Four, Dark Daily further predicts a surprisingly fast take-up of digital imaging and even fully-digital pathology systems by smaller pathology group practices. Generation Y pathologists will be eager advocates of this transition within private practice settings, as much of their medical training relied almost exclusively on digital images.
Pathologists and pathology practice administrators who want to stay ahead of these forceful trends will find insights and answers at the upcoming Executive War College on Lab and Pathology Management, which takes place on April 28-29, 2009 at the Sheraton Hotel in New Orleans. (more…)
Mar 13, 2009 | Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Many experts argue that better use of information technology (IT) in hospitals across the country can improve patient outcomes and at the same time lower the cost of care. Now comes publication of a study of IT use by hospitals in Texas that supports that view. Researchers determined that extensive use of information technology helped hospitals in Texas cut costs and save lives.
Results of this study, titled “Clinical Information Technologies and Inpatient Outcomes: A Multiple Hospital Study”, were published in the Archives of Internal Medicine on January 26, 2009. Researchers surveyed physicians affiliated with 41 Texas hospitals. These physicians were treating patients for a variety of conditions, including heart attack, heart failure, and pneumonia. Researchers determined that relatively modest increases in the use of technology by a hospital often had dramatic results. (more…)
Mar 11, 2009 | Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Consumers raise the bar on expectations of error-free healthcare
Multiple cases of medical errors hit the headlines in recent months. Collectively, these headlines raise an interesting point. Patients and the public at large have changed expectations about the quality of healthcare. Consumers increasingly expect medical services to be error-free. When news surfaces that a provider committed a pattern of medical errors over an extended period of time, it becomes a major news story. (more…)
