Clinical Laboratories in Hospitals Continue to Experience Reductions in Test Orders as Emergency Department Visits for Common Conditions Slowly Climb Back to Pre-Pandemic Levels
Multiple recent studies reveal a substantial number of patients continue to delay needed healthcare in the months since the onset of the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak Based on an analysis of hospital emergency department (ED) usage, federal researchers concluded that patients...
CMS Proposes a New Rule That Would Shift Many Procedures from High-Cost Inpatient Healthcare Settings to Lower-Cost Outpatient Ambulatory Surgical Centers
If the proposed rule becomes final, it may shift some inpatient medical laboratory testing away from hospital labs and to independent clinical laboratories Medical laboratories in hospitals and health systems already feel the pinch of less test orders originating from...
UCSF and Stanford Researchers Investigate Why Some Infected with COVID-19 Are Asymptomatic, While Others Become Severely Ill or Die
Might clinical laboratories soon be called on to conduct mass testing to find people who show little or no symptoms even though they are infected with the coronavirus? Clinical laboratory managers understand that as demand for COVID-19 testing exceeds supplies,...
New Research Suggests Clinical Laboratory Blood Tests Could Fill A Void in Alzheimer’s Disease Diagnoses
Studies presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference point to the p-tau217 protein as an especially useful biomarker Researchers disclosed a potentially useful biomarker for Alzheimer’s Disease at a major conference this summer. The good news for...
Though Two Analyst Reports Show Depressed Operating Margins for Healthcare, Providers and Clinical Laboratories May See Patient Volumes Rise for the Rest of 2020
July data shows some volume gains for providers since June; however, analysts say current predictions depends on progress of the COVID-19 pandemic Clinical laboratory managers preparing strategic plans for 2020 and 2021 face a basic and key question: when and...
Individual EUAs for Molecular Diagnostic Tests for SARS-CoV-2
This table includes information about authorized SARS-CoV-2 molecular diagnostic tests. These EUAs have been issued for each individual test with certain conditions of authorization required of the manufacturer and authorized laboratories. (Source: FDA.gov) Visit our...
Kissinger, Mattis, and Murdoch Possible Government Witnesses for the Prosecution against Elizabeth Holmes in Theranos Clinical Laboratory Testing Fraud Case
The federal trial, now set to begin in March 2021, could become a media spectacle given the marquee names on the witness list Clinical laboratories following the federal criminal proceedings against Theranos founder and former CEO Elizabeth Holmes will have to wait...
Delays in Reporting Results of COVID-19 Clinical Laboratory Tests Prompt Florida Governor to End SARS-CoV-2 Testing Contract with Quest Diagnostics
Quest said a ‘technical issue’ had delayed reporting of test data to the state and claimed that patients and providers still received the results in a timely manner Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has ordered state agencies to cut ties with Quest Diagnostics due to...
US Government Purchases 150 Million COVID-19 Antigen Tests from Abbott Laboratories for $760 Million; Only CLIA-Certified Clinical Laboratories Can Do Testing
Abbott sends the SARS-CoV-2 test results directly to patients’ smartphones, which can be displayed to gain entrance into areas requiring proof of COVID-19 testing There is no greater example that COVID-19 is a major force for change in the clinical laboratory industry...
‘There’s an App for That’ is Becoming the Norm in Healthcare as Smartphones Provide Access to Patient Medical Records and Clinical Laboratory Test Results
Amazon’s app-based employee healthcare service could be first step toward retailer becoming a disruptive force in healthcare; federal VA develops its own mHealth apps More consumers are using smartphone applications (apps) to manage different aspects of their...
UPMC Researchers Develop Artificial Intelligence Algorithm That Detects Prostate Cancer with ‘Near Perfect Accuracy’ in Effort to Improve How Pathologists Diagnose Cancer
Working from tissue slides similar to those used by surgical pathologists, the algorithm accurately detects prostate cancer with an impressive 98% sensitivity It could be that a new milestone has been reached on the road to using artificial intelligence (AI) to help...
New Understanding of CRISPR-Cas9-Guided Base Editors Could Trigger Development of Gene-Editing Tools Targeting Diseases and New Types of Clinical Laboratory Tests
Being able to study the 3D-structure of a CRISPR base editor could help refine the entire CRISPR system, says lead study author Jennifer Doudna, PhD Molecular biology laboratories engaged in CRISPR gene editing will be interested to note that researchers at the...
German Scientists Train Dogs to Detect the Presence of COVID-19 in Saliva Samples; Can a Canine’s Nose Be as Accurate as Clinical Laboratory Testing?
Though only in the pilot study phase, results correlate with earlier studies where both dogs and humans were able to “smell” specific diseases in people Man’s best friend has risked life and limb to save humans for centuries. Now, researchers in Germany have...
King’s College London Study Identifies Six Distinct ‘Types’ of COVID-19 Illness, Each with a Distinct ‘Cluster’ of Symptoms
The KCL researchers’ new models for predicting which patients will need hospitalization and breathing support may be useful for pathologists and clinical laboratory scientists One more window into understanding the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus may have just opened. A...
Pooled Testing may Provide a Method of Increasing the Number of Coronavirus Tests Being Performed in the US
Pooled testing could become a critical tool for clinical laboratories to spot the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus among asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic individuals COVID-19 testing for individuals has expanded in the US, but the number of people actually tested remains a...
How Clinical Laboratories Can Avoid COVID-19 Superspreaders, Protect Their Customers and Their Hospital Networks
Understanding how superspreading occurs can help clinical lab leaders slow and even prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2 within their communities and health systems Clinical laboratories understand the critical importance of preventing the spread of infection. However,...
Medicare Proposes Payment Changes to Increase At-Home Dialysis Services for End-Stage Renal Disease Patients in a Trend That Shifts Where These Patients Access Clinical Laboratory Tests
New rule for 2021 would accelerate CMS’ effort to direct patient care to lower-cost settings and improving access to care Medicare is using data to assess where it spends the most money on clinical services. Then, guided by that data, it wants to take steps to...
Studies Finding Remnants of SARS-CoV-2 in Sewage Suggest COVID-19 May Not Have Originated at Wuhan Market, Some Scientists Dispute the Findings
Researchers from multiple countries looked at sewage samples collected from 2018 through early 2020, with findings that may interest microbiologists and medical laboratory scientists Clinical laboratory tests for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus can identify COVID-19 cases...
Researchers Use Nanopore Sequencing Technology to Complete First Gapless End-to-End Assembly of Human X Chromosome
Ability to produce unbroken DNA sequencing could eventually be used by medical laboratories to identify gene sequences that play significant roles in a variety of diseases and health conditions While near 24/7 coronavirus coverage occupies much of the media, it is...
Two Healthcare Attorneys Discuss Remedies for Medical Laboratories Facing Financial Distress Due to COVID-19
Though lenders and landlords may be willing to renegotiate terms, communication is key, the lawyers suggest COVID-19 has vastly increased demand for clinical laboratory testing. But at many labs, the pandemic has caused much damage to the bottom line. Due to numerous...
UCSF Researchers Discover COVID-19 Coronavirus Evolved to Grow Tentacles and Use Them to Infect Other Cells!
Study scientists identified several currently available drugs that could inhibit growth of these “streaming filaments,” which infected cells use to go after non-infected cells Like a scene from a bad horror movie, scientists have discovered that SARS-CoV-2, the...
Despite the Coronavirus Pandemic, Medicare Officials Continue Push for Price Transparency by Pressuring Hospitals to Disclose Rates Negotiated with Private Payers
Clinical laboratories are advised to continue developing methods for making prices for procedures available to the general public Even as an effective treatment for COVID-19 continues to elude federal healthcare agencies, Medicare officials are pressing ahead with...
Abbott Lab’s ID NOW COVID-19 Rapid Molecular Test Continues to Face Scrutiny over ‘False Negatives’
Though the test initially drew ‘raves’ from Trump administration, the FDA now suggests negative results should be confirmed with an additional ‘high-sensitivity authorized SARS-CoV-2 molecular test’ This spring, as the United States attempted to jump-start a national...
Coronavirus Fraud Takes Many Forms as Federal and Local Officials Continue to Pursue Widespread Cases of Clinical Laboratory Testing Scams
Since the pandemic began, federal investigators are specifically looking for patterns of fraud in Medicare claims data for COVID-19 clinical laboratory testing Last month, the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG)...
FEMA Paid a Just-Formed Company Millions of Dollars for COVID-19 Specimen Collection Tubes That Were Unusable for Clinical Laboratory Testing
The fledgling test-kit company sent plastic preforms that were intended for use in the manufacturing of soda bottles, not clinical laboratory specimen tubes When is a specimen tube not a specimen tube? When it is a plastic tube made for creating soda bottles. And that...
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