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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Results of Undercover Assessment Suggest Clinical Laboratory Companies Need to Raise the Bar on Quality Control of Non-Invasive Prenatal Tests

Three out of five NIPT laboratories returned normal or negative test results for samples taken from non-pregnant women in undercover test performance assessment

Clinical laboratory companies that offer genetic tests may want to be on the alert. Secret shoppers are submitting specimens for the purpose of assessing the quality, the accuracy, and the clinical relevance of the proprietary medical laboratory tests they perform.

One such report was published in GenomeWeb under the title “Undercover Assessment of Five Commercial NIPT Labs Points to Need for Better Quality Control.” The goal of the report was to emphasize the need for standards to ensure quality and accuracy of molecular assays and genetic tests.

This report discussed results from an undercover performance assessment of five commercial laboratories, each of which offers Non-Invasive Prenatal Tests (NIPTs). GenomeWeb reported that three test results reported normal or negative test results for a female fetus, despite the fact that the samples submitted had been taken from non-pregnant women. (more…)

Do Some Clinical Laboratory Companies Oversell Prenatal Genetic Screening Tests?

A growing number of media stories claim medical lab companies that develop genetic screening assays oversell the accuracy of such tests and fail to educate parents and doctors about the risks of false positives and false negatives

In response to growing concerns by consumers about the accuracy of some proprietary genetic screening assays, several media outlets have begun reporting on this sector of the clinical laboratory industry.

What gives these news stories emotional punch is the fact that patients use these proprietary medical laboratory tests to make decisions that can be life-changing. In its story about these tests, the Boston Sunday Globe used the headline “Oversold prenatal tests spur some to choose abortions.” (more…)

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