Advancements That Could Bring Proteomics and Mass Spectrometry to Clinical Laboratories

Jan 13, 2020 | Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations

Experts list the top challenges facing widespread adoption of proteomics in the medical laboratory industry Year-by-year, clinical laboratories find new ways to use mass spectrometry to analyze clinical specimens, producing results that may be more precise than test results produced by other methodologies. This is particularly true in the field of proteomics. However, though mass spectrometry is highly accurate and fast, taking only minutes to convert a specimen into a result, it is not fully...

Smartphone Apps Enable Healthcare Consumers to Receive Primary Care without Traditional Office Visits, But How Will They Provide Needed Medical Laboratory Samples?

Jan 8, 2020 | Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations

These virtual office visits use artificial intelligence and text messaging to allow real physicians to diagnose patients, write prescriptions, and order clinical laboratory tests Clinical laboratories may soon be receiving test orders from physicians who never see their patients in person, instead evaluating and diagnosing them through a smartphone app. In response to major changes in the primary care industry—mostly driven by consumer demand—mobile app developers are introducing new methods...

Two Boston Health Systems Enter the Growing Direct-to-Consumer Gene Sequencing Market by Opening Preventative Genomics Clinics, but Can Patients Afford the Service?

Jan 3, 2020 | Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations, Precision Medicine

By offering DTC preventative gene sequencing, hospital leaders hope to help physicians better predict cancer risk and provide more accurate diagnoses Two Boston health systems, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), are the latest to open preventative gene sequencing clinics and compete with consumer gene sequencing companies, such as 23andMe and Ancestry, as well as with other hospital systems that already provide similar services. This may provide...

Does Precision Oncology Offer Patients Superior Treatment Therapies? Anatomic Pathologists Will Be Interested to Learn Why Oncology Experts Disagree

Dec 30, 2019 | Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations, Precision Medicine

Number of patients eligible for genome-driven oncology therapy is increasing, but the percentage who reportedly benefit from the therapy remains at less than 5% Advances in precision medicine in oncology (precision oncology) are fueling the need for clinical laboratory companion diagnostic tests that help physicians choose the best treatment protocols. In fact, this is a fast-growing area of clinical diagnostics for the nation’s anatomic pathologists. However, some experts in the field of...

Harvard Researchers Study Whether Joint Commission Accrediting Results in Better Outcomes for Patients and Whether Accredited Hospitals Produce Better Outcomes than State-Reviewed Hospitals

Dec 23, 2019 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement

In response to Harvard’s conclusions, the Joint Commission claimed the study contained “factual errors” and “multiple methodological flaws” in strong rebuttals to findings Today’s emphasis on value-based healthcare rewards hospitals, physicians, clinical laboratories, and other healthcare service providers for improved patient outcomes. But does hospital accreditation play a role in those improved outcomes? A study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) suggests that hospital...

UPS Expands Drone Delivery Service for Transporting Clinical Laboratory Specimens Across Healthcare Systems to Include Delivering Prescriptions from CVS Pharmacy to Customers’ Homes

Dec 20, 2019 | Instruments & Equipment, International Laboratory News, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations

Through partnerships with CVS, Utah Health, and Kaiser Permanente the new UPSFF drone service could deliver savings to healthcare consumers and reduced TATs for clinical laboratories United Parcel Service (UPS) successfully delivered by air medical prescriptions from a CVS pharmacy to customers’ residences in Cary N.C. This was the next step in the package delivery company’s plan to become a major player in the use of drones in healthcare and it has major implications for clinical laboratories...