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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Attention All Clinical Laboratory, Pathology, and IVD Sales Professionals! Nominations for First-ever National Lab Sales Excellence Awards Are Open

Medical laboratory sales reps selected as winners will each receive a $3,000 prize and an expense-paid trip to the Executive War College for the awards ceremony

Never before has the profession of laboratory medicine had a national achievement award for sales professionals who are a primary source of service between their clinical laboratory organizations and the physicians who order medical laboratory tests.

That is all about to change on April 28, 2016, when the winners of the first-ever National Lab Sales Excellence Awards will be announced. This new recognition program is being sponsored by The Dark Report, sister publication of Dark Daily. The winners of these awards will be announced at the 21st annual Executive War College on Laboratory and Pathology Management before an audience of as many as 900 lab managers, administrators, and pathologists. (more…)

‘10 Disruptive Forces in Healthcare’ Provide Challenges for Clinical Laboratories and Pathology Groups Forced to Respond to a Changing Marketplace

Transition to value-based reimbursement tops Insigniam’s list of factors altering healthcare landscape

Management consulting firm Insigniam recently identified “10 Disruptive Forces in Healthcare”. Several of these development create significant implications for clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups that are navigating today’s rapidly-changing healthcare landscape.

ACA and Aging Population Reshaping Healthcare

“I have been doing healthcare for 33 years at this point. And there has been more change in the last three [years] than at any time, and it’s by a long shot,” declared Donald Casey, Jr., Chief Executive Officer of the Medical Segment of Cardinal Health in Ohio. He was quoted by Insigniam Quarterly.

donald casey

Donald Casey, Jr., Chief Executive Officer of the Medical Segment of Ohio-based Cardinal Health, has firsthand experience responding to the fundamental changes taking place in healthcare today. Casey points to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and an aging population as the two drivers behind what is a fundamental reshaping of American healthcare. (Photo copyright: Cardinal Health.)

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Innovative Medical and Pathology Laboratories in Canada Shared Successes in Improving Patient Outcomes at Last Week’s Executive Edge Conference

Pathologists and clinical lab leaders heard about innovations in microbiology automation, genetic testing, use of mass spectrometry, and lab informatics advances

DATELINE: TORONTO, ONTARIO: From across Canada, clinical laboratory executives, pathologists, and health service administrators assembled last week to attend Executive Edge, this nation’s largest conference on innovations in the management and operation of medical laboratories.

Healthcare in Canada faces challenges that are common to healthcare systems in most developed countries. Demand for healthcare is growing at a fast pace due to an aging population and increased incidence of chronic disease. Government budgets cannot grow fast enough to meet the rising demand for healthcare services. (more…)

Medical Laboratories in Canada Face Squeeze from a Retiring Labor Force, the Need to Acquire New Diagnostic Technologies, and Increased Demand for Lab Tests

In provinces across Canada, health systems are dealing with limited budgets, growing populations, and the need to transition to personalized medicine

Medical laboratories in Canada have something in common with medical laboratories in most other developed nations. Demand for healthcare services exceeds capacity, even as the healthcare system struggles to find adequate funding. This puts pathology labs in a bind, since they are asked to test growing numbers of specimens even as budgets are flat or shrinking.

That means the biggest two challenges facing labs in Canada will be familiar to pathologists, clinical chemists and medical laboratory scientists in almost every other developed nation across the globe. One challenge is how to meet the steady annual increase in lab specimens that must be tested. The second challenge is how to do that additional testing even as government health systems are forced to trim budgets year after year. (more…)

Health Diagnostic Laboratory Puts Itself Up for Sale as Virginia Medical Lab Company Solicits Bids for Auction

HDL also got approval to question executives from UnitedHealthcare in court over unpaid claims, its third dispute with a health insurance company

Following a string of major setbacks, Health Diagnostic Laboratory (HDL) of Richmond, Virginia, put itself up for sale last week. This action comes after HDL’s announcement in April that it would pay more than $100 million to settle charges with federal investigators that it violated the False Claims Act. Then, early last month, the clinical laboratory company filed for bankruptcy protection.

On Tuesday, July 14, U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Kevin R. Huennekens approved HDL’s request to put itself up for sale through a court-monitored auction, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. No potential buyer has been named, but the clinical laboratory company has businesses that are interested in acquiring HDL, the Times-Dispatch added. (more…)

‘Nighthawk’ Radiology Services Expand to Hospital Pharmacies: Could Pathology Laboratories Be Next?

Use of telemedicine services in radiology and pharmacy may hold down labor costs and expand services for patients, but expanded use of telemedicine could also disrupt other local medical subspecialty providers, including pathologists

Over the past 15 years, pathologists have watched how radiology has been disrupted by the “nighthawk” model of remote teleradiology services. Now, the nighthawk approach to telepharmacy could disrupt pharmacy as well. As this happens, pathologists may be wondering when their medical specialty will see its first “nighthawk pathology” disruptors.

Remote Pharmacists Improve Hospital Drug Delivery

One company bringing the nighthawk model to hospital pharmacy services is PipelineRx of San Francisco, California. Its executives believe that they can make the drug delivery system in hospitals more efficient by filling labor shortages with remote pharmacists, according to a MedCity News article.

PipelineRx CEO Brian Roberts acknowledges that his company is taking a page from the teleradiology playbook. “We figured we could do the same with pharmacies because of the technology and create an environment and monitor prescriptions in the hospital and allocate it to home pharmacists,” Roberts told MedCity News, adding that it can both trim costs while ensuring adequate monitoring for patient safety. (more…)

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