Sep 9, 2016 | Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing
Offering lower costs and quicker returns than much of the traditional lab equipment in use today, lab-on-a-chip devices are again in a position to revolutionize pathology and medical laboratory work
For nearly 20 years, researchers have heralded microfluidic devices, paper-based diagnostics, and other lab-on-a-chip (LOC) technologies, as ways for medical laboratory scientists, pathologists, and other medical diagnostic professionals to reduce the time and costs of clinical laboratory services. With the promise of obtaining results in just minutes without the need for extensive training, these point-of-care tests and devices create big buzz with each new design.
An yet, after all that progress, most laboratories still depend on their spectrometers, flow cytometers, blood analyzers, and other equipment for the bulk of their testing and routines.
That leaves one major question for clinical laboratory professionals and chip developers alike—when is the revolution? (more…)
Sep 16, 2015 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Digital Pathology, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Experts believe compressive sensing could find wide application in medical laboratory and pathology testing, particularly where large amounts of data are generated
Pathologists and medical laboratory managers may soon be working with a new tool in their labs. It is called “Compressive Sensing” (CS) and it is an innovative mathematical approach that quickly and efficiently gets an answer by sampling large volumes of a data.
Currently compressive sensing is used in medical imaging technology. CS reduces radiation and speeds up imaging diagnostics. Some experts familiar with this technology believe that it can be used in those clinical laboratories that are working with new diagnostic technologies that generate large volumes of data. CS could dramatically reduce times to analyze results and lower the cost of expensive tests like whole-genome sequencing. (more…)
Mar 23, 2011 | Digital Pathology, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Rapid gene sequencing technology will give medical laboratories a new diagnostic tool
Rapidly-evolving molecular diagnostics technology is about to trigger a major expansion in pre-conception genetic testing. In turn, this could benefit clinical laboratories and pathology groups as they begin to offer these genetic tests to help prospective parents screen their DNA for recessive gene mutations that cause 448 deadly childhood diseases in offspring.
This breakthrough medical laboratory test delivers two important benefits. First, as a universal carrier screening test, this multiplex assay greatly expands the number of diseases that can be screened at one time. Second, its next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology dramatically reduces the cost of genetic sequencing. Instead of thousands of dollars, this test only costs about $400!
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