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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Foundation Medicine Striving to Use Next-Generation Gene Sequencing to Enrich Diagnostic Value Offered to Physicians by Clinical Laboratories

Pathologists will want to understand how this innovative company is doing multi-gene analysis of patient tumors that includes information about therapeutics and clinical trials

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS—Next-generation gene sequencing is already changing how cancer is diagnosed and treated for a growing number of patients. Because it moves healthcare closer toward personalized medicine, this development has major implications for anatomic pathology groups and clinical laboratories.

One company in the forefront of personalized medicine is Foundation Medicine, based here in the Boston’s Route 128 biotech corridor. Last week, your Dark Daily Editor, Robert L. Michel, met with the executive team and toured the company’s CLIA-licensed medical laboratory to learn more about this company’s unique approach to clinical diagnostics. (more…)

Changing Role for Pathology and Clinical Laboratory Testing Discussed at Personalized Medicine World Conference in Silicon Valley

Genetic testing and molecular diagnostics will be essential to wider adoption of personalized medicine by nation’s physicians

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA—Here in Silicon Valley at the Personalized Medicine World Conference (PMWC), the role of clinical laboratory testing and anatomic pathology services was consistently recognized as essential in advancing this important healthcare trend. Yet, at the same time, few pathologists or clinical laboratory executives were in attendance.

Your Dark Daily Editor, Robert L. Michel, was here at PMWC this week to speak on the topic of how medical laboratories and pathology groups will be one primary—and important—channel for helping physicians adopt and use personalized medicine in their medical practice. In simplest terms, it is typically pathologists and clinical laboratory professionals who educate doctors about the availability of new clinical lab tests and how to use them in their practice of medicine.

In that role, the medical laboratory provides physicians with information on when to order these new assays, how to interpret the lab test results, and how to use those results to determine the most appropriate therapy. Yet, here at the Personalized Medicine World Conference, developers at biotech companies seem to be overlooking this long-established fact in the clinical care marketplace. (more…)

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