News, Analysis, Trends, Management Innovations for
Clinical Laboratories and Pathology Groups

Hosted by Robert Michel

News, Analysis, Trends, Management Innovations for
Clinical Laboratories and Pathology Groups

Hosted by Robert Michel
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Pathologists and Clinical Laboratories to Play Critical Role in Developing New Tools to Fight Antibiotic Resistance

Medical laboratories to become antimicrobial stewards in the fight against antibiotic resistance

At the start of 2017, new requirements for antimicrobial stewardship programs became effective for hospitals and other providers that must accredit to the standards of Medicare Conditions of Participation (COP) and The Joint Commission. Clinical laboratories serving hospitals are already engaged in efforts to improve the use of antibiotics in ways that slow the growth of antibiotic-resistant strains of infectious agents.

Even as the nation’s hospitals embark on efforts to implement effective antimicrobial stewardship programs, researchers continue to seek solutions to the same problem. They are following several paths to combat the growing resistance certain pathogens have to antibiotics. In particular, two approaches are interesting for pathologists and medical laboratory personnel. One involves understanding the processes that lead to antibiotic resistance. The other is to identify useful biomarkers associated with specific strains of pathogens. (more…)

Evolution and Revolution in Anatomic Pathology Discussed by Experts at Cold Springs Harbor Laboratory This Week

Because of ongoing advances in gene sequencing and the data analytics needed to interpret that information, new approaches to clinical care are becoming available to physicians and pathologists

COLD SPRING HARBOR, NEW YORK—Internationally-recognized as a leader in bringing together the brightest minds in genetics, the Banbury Center at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) produced a three-day conference here last week to explore the future state of anatomic pathology and identify opportunities in genetic medicine and image sciences that play to the strengths of the nation’s pathology laboratories.

“Evolution and Revolution in Anatomic Pathology: Automation, Machine-Assisted Diagnostics, Molecular Prognostics, and Theranostics” was the title, and the meeting’s organizers were CSHL and the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Northwell Health.

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Founded in 1890

The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has a long history and an enviable reputation. It was founded in 1890 to train teachers in biology. However, by 1904, the laboratory’s mission had been expanded to include research in genetics. In 1924, the research mission was further enlarged to include quantitative biology—in particular, physiology and biophysics.

It was in 1968 that Nobel laureate James Watson, then a professor at Harvard University, accepted the directorship of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory while also keeping his professorship at Harvard University. Watson served at some level of leadership until 2008, when he became Chancellor Emeritus. Currently CSHL laboratory houses about 200 research-related personnel. (more…)

Barriers Restricting Access to EHR Data in Support of Patient Safety and Privacy Laws Can Lead to Diagnostic Errors, Some Involving Clinical Laboratory Tests

What causes diagnostic errors? This was the question asked by researchers at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center (EDVA) in Houston. It is also a question of great interest to pathologists and clinical laboratory scientists, since the failure of physicians to properly order and interpret medical laboratory tests can be a cause of diagnostic errors.

Researchers were investigating how access to patient data embedded in hospital electronic health records (EHRs) affects patient safety. The results of their study—and the challenges they encountered accessing the data during the research—led to some startling conclusions about accessibility to patient data, and the nature of the data itself.

The researchers published their findings online in “Challenges in Patient Safety Improvement Research in the Era of Electronic Health Records.” Their paper examines ways in which EHRs can assist healthcare professionals in improving patient safety and guaranteeing proper follow-up care. (more…)

Harvard Researchers Develop Technology That ‘Turbocharges’ the Standard Medical Laboratory Microscope in Useful Ways

Breakthrough method could provide pathologists with a less expensive alternative to high-priced super-resolution microscopes or often-imprecise microscopy software

Intriguing new research has the potential to “turbocharge” the standard medical laboratory microscope in ways that create a “super-vision” capability. This would give pathologists and medical researchers an inexpensive alternative to high-priced super-resolution microscopes or often-imprecise microscopy software.

Seeking a new method for counting molecules in complexes, researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University paired their DNA-powered super-resolution microscopy platform—DNA-PAINT and Exchange-PAINT—with a new procedure called quantitative points accumulation in nanoscale topography—or qPAINT. This new analytic tool can “count different molecular species in biological samples with high accuracy and precision,” noted a Wyss Institute press release. (more…)

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine Develop Cutting-Edge Test to Identify Whether an Infection is Bacterial or Viral

Early results are promising and this technology could lead to a clinical laboratory test that would give microbiologists and pathologists a new tool for helping diagnose infections

Infectious disease physicians and clinical laboratory scientists will be interested to learn that researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine recently developed a new blood test that can identify whether the source of an infection is bacterial or viral.

These findings were published in Science Translational Medicine in July. The paper was authored by Stanford staff members Timothy Sweeney, MD, PhD, and Purvesh Khatri, PhD, Assistant Professor (Research) of Medicine (Biomedical Informatics Research-ITI Institute) and of Biomedical Data Science. Hector Wong, MD, of the University of Cincinnati was the third co-author of the study.

These findings are timely because, starting on January 1, 2017, hospitals and health systems will need to implement more rigorous antimicrobial stewardship programs to comply with new requirements of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and The Joint Commission (TJC). A clinical laboratory test that makes it easier to determine whether the cause of an infection is bacterial or viral would be a welcome tool for physicians, pharmacists, pathologists, and microbiologists involved in a hospital’s infection control program. (more…)

IBM and Mount Sinai Researchers Develop Innovative Medical Lab-on-a-Chip Solution

Clinical laboratories and pathology groups may eventually use these devices to detect minute quantities of biomarkers

IBM has regularly declared its interest in being a player in the field of healthcare big data. Now comes news that the information technology giant wants to develop lab-on-a-chip (LOC) technology that can handle different types of clinical laboratory and anatomic pathology tests.

As reported in Nature Nanotechnology, researchers at IBM are working with a team from Mount Sinai Health System. Together, they created a lab-on-a-chip device capable of separating biomolecules as small as 20nm in length from urine, saliva, or blood samples without the need for specialized clinical laboratory equipment. The technology is called nanoDLD.

Current testing of this lab-on-a-chip focuses on exosomes and cancer research. However, researchers note that the asymmetric pillar array on their silicon chip can also separate DNA, viruses, and protein complexes. With further development, they hope to separate particles down to 10nm in length. This would allow isolation of specific proteins. (more…)

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