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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GOP Senators Join House Republicans in Calling for an End to EHR Payments

Unexpected opposition to EHR incentive program should be watched by pathologists and clinical laboratory managers

Questions about the value of the federal government’s program to encourage provider adoption of electronic health record (EHR) systems were raised by Republican leaders in both houses of Congress just weeks before the election on November 6.

Because clinical laboratories and pathology groups have a big stake in interfacing their laboratory information systems to physicians’ EHRs, this new development bears watching.

In October, GOP Senators and House Republicans joined together and issued a call for an immediate halt to distribution of incentive payments to providers for implementing electronic health record (EHR) systems. This program is now in its second full year of implementation. (more…)

Survey Reveals Physicians Like Mobile Computing and Accessing Clinical Laboratory Tests Is One Important Use

QuantiaMD’s survey confirms that physicians will increasingly seek real-time connectivity and consultation with medical laboratory service providers

Physicians are quickly becoming fans of mobile computing. Clinical laboratory managers and pathologists will be interested to learn that, in fact, mobile computing is taking hold among physicians faster than in the general population.

This was one conclusion from a recent survey, according to an article in Healthcare Informatics. QuantiaMD, a Waltham, MA-based mobile and online physician community, conducted a survey of 3,798 physicians. More than 80 % of the respondents said they own a mobile device capable of downloading applications. That means that a far higher percentage of physicians are using mobile devices than among the general public.

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Pathologists May Want to Re-think Their Medical Laboratory’s Use of Digital Pathology

Pathology informaticist points out that not every slide in a patient’s case may need to be scanned and archived by a digital pathology system

Is digital pathology ready for prime time in the specialty of anatomic pathology? Many proponents of digital pathology would say “yes,” and the pathology laboratories now using digital pathology systems report significant benefits. But there are pathologists who argue that this is still a developing technology.

Like any new technology in clinical laboratory medicine and healthcare, digital pathology must demonstrate the right combination of cost-to-acquire, speed-in-use, and added-clinical-value, if it is to gain wide acceptance by pathologists. At the same time, “going digital” has transformed radiology, for example, and this example is often cited by boosters of digital pathology systems.

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