Jul 13, 2012 | Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
District Health Boards in New Zealand use medical laboratory test contracts as one way to control cost of testing and better manage utilization
HAMILTON, NEW ZEALAND—Medical laboratory testing in this mid-sized city is carefully divided between a community laboratory company and the cluster of hospitals located in and around Hamilton. The test menu offered by each clinical laboratory is defined by contracts negotiated with the individual District Health Boards (DHB) that manage the healthcare system in this region of New Zealand.
This week, your Dark Daily editor, Robert L. Michel is in New Zealand. He is visiting clinical and pathology laboratories in two cities and speaking at the 2012 Pathology Laboratory Meeting that is conducted annually by Canterbury Health Laboratories (CHL), located in Christchurch. (more…)
Mar 27, 2012 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, News From Dark Daily
Trends in salary, compensation, and benefits is nation’s oldest for medical laboratory CEOs, executives, and administrators
For the fourth consecutive year, a reliable national survey of compensation trends for clinical laboratory executives, administrators, directors, pathologists, and managers was conducted. The first findings of this survey will be presented on May 1 at the Executive War College on Laboratory and Pathology Management in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Slone Partners of Miami Beach, Florida, national recruitment experts for the diagnostic laboratory industry, and The Dark Report once again collaborated to produce what is fast-becoming the nation’s most comprehensive national survey of trends in compensation, benefits, and perks paid to senior executives, lab administrators, lab managers, pathologists, and Ph.D.s working in the United States. (more…)
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…)
Jan 11, 2012 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations, News From Dark Daily
Innovative pathology laboratory organizations in the UK and Europe will come together at the Frontiers in Laboratory Medicine (FiLM) conference on January 31-February 1, 2012
For decades, the pathology and medical laboratory service in the United Kingdom has been the envy of many developed nations. But times change and the National Health Service (NHS) finds itself coping with increased demand, shrinking budgets, and soaring healthcare costs. As a result, the NHS is asking pathology testing labs in the UK to do more with less.
Consequently, the status quo for pathology and medical laboratory medicine in the United Kingdom is undergoing fundamental change—often at a rapid pace. In some areas, multiple hospital laboratories are being asked to consolidate into a single regional lab organization.
Another change is that price competition for pathology testing has become a factor. Within the NHS, primary care trusts now tender for pathology testing services and commission those pathology laboratories that bid the most competitive prices. The tender and commissioning process is creating new economic winners and losers among pathology laboratories throughout the United Kingdom. (more…)
Dec 21, 2011 | Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Laboratory professionals with four years of higher education do earn comparable compensation when compared to other professions requiring a four-year degree
Never say that readers of Dark Daily are not ready to express opinions and speak out! On Monday, we published an e-briefing that reported on the inclusion of “Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technicians” on a list of the “Most-Educated and Least-Paid Professions” that was compiled by a reporter at 24/7 Wall St.
Essentially, using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Employment Statistics Database, this reporter had ranked “Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technicians” as number three of seven professions which were most-educated and least paid. (See Dark Daily, Bad News for Clinical Pathology Laboratories: Med Techs Rank Number 3 on List of Most-Educated and Least-Paid Professions,” December 19, 2011.) (more…)
