Nov 16, 2016 | Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing
Machine learning software may help pathologists make earlier and more accurate diagnoses
In Boston, two major academic centers are teaming up to apply big data and machine learning to the problem of diagnosing cancers earlier and with more accuracy. It is research that might have major implications for the anatomic pathology profession.
A collaborative effort between teams at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Harvard Medical School (HMS) has resulted in an innovation that could result in more accurate diagnoses in the pathology laboratory. The teams have been working on a machine learning software program that will eventually function as an artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the accuracy of diagnostics. They hope to someday build AI-powered computer systems that can accurately and quickly interpret pathology images. (more…)
Aug 3, 2016 | Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing, Management & Operations
‘Explosive growth’ of biomarker discovery and development fuels demand for biospecimens, thus creating a new revenue source for clinical laboratories and pathology groups
Are health information networks alive and well in the United States? This sector of healthcare has been quiet in recent years. However, there is one statewide health information exchange (HIE) that is doing innovative things with clinical laboratory specimens.
The Delaware Health Information Network (DHIN) has entered into a novel collaboration that may help address the medical research community’s growing need for clinical specimens. At the same time, this agreement will also provide a much-needed new revenue stream for participating medical laboratories and hospitals.
With Medicare and health insurers reducing reimbursements for laboratory tests, medical laboratories and pathology groups are facing uncertain financial times. However, DHIN’s new partnership with iSpecimen of Massachusetts highlights the potential value of remnant clinical specimens—samples that otherwise would be discarded once patient testing is complete.
“The value of digitizing medical data extends beyond the obvious value of supporting direct patient care,” DHIN Chief Executive Officer Jan Lee, MD, said in a news release. “With informed patient consent, digital data can also help match clinical specimens with very specific research criteria. DHIN is proud to play a role in supporting such efforts to find new breakthrough treatments and cures.” (more…)
Apr 25, 2016 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Sales and Marketing
Legislation has been introduced that, if passed, would ensure health consumers have the opportunity to see and correct information held by data brokers
When it comes to patient privacy, pathologists and clinical laboratory managers may be spending more time addressing a growing issue with the patient data their labs create and store. Third-party data brokers want to position themselves to collect healthcare data at the source so can they de-identify it and sell it to interested parties.
Data brokers are commercial entities that collect, assemble, and/or maintain personal information about individuals. They also sell or provide third-party access to the information, explained the Congressional Research Service, a Legislative Branch Agency that provides policy and legal analysis to both House and Senate members and committees of the U.S. Congress, regardless of party affiliation.
Pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers, and other businesses can purchase said data from various types of data brokers, such as information, analysis, and technology companies. The purchased data then can go on to guide industry investments or launch drug marketing campaigns. (more…)
Feb 26, 2016 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
This healthcare big data project’s tools and predictive models involve real-time monitoring of patient data and are expected to be available soon to other to providers
One healthcare big data project has begun to report progress on using predictive analytics to improve patient care in the diagnosis and management of such health conditions as sepsis and heart failure. This pioneering effort is being done at the University of Pennsylvania Health System’s (Penn Medicine’s), Institute for Biomedical Informatics (IBI).
What will be of high interest for pathologists and clinical laboratory executives is how this big data project incorporates lab test results into the effort.
Recently, Penn Medicine announced Penn Signals, a big-data project that, in part, relies on the lab data housed in the academic medical center’s laboratory information system (LIS) as well as its outpatient and inpatient data house in its electronic health record (EHR) system. (more…)
Jan 15, 2016 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing
Some health IT experts criticize the Government Accountability Office report for ‘incomplete research’ and failure to focus on ‘person-centered interoperability’
Several years after paying billions of incentive dollars to thousands of hospitals and physicians to encourage adoption of electronic health records (EHRs), federal officials remain frustrated at the lack of interoperability among the competing EHR systems. This is a problem recognized by clinical laboratories that must create and maintain interfaces between their laboratory information systems (LISs) and the EHRs of their client physicians.
Frustration over this situation motivated Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee chairman, along with four other U.S. Senate Committee Chairman, to request that the General Accountability Office (GAO) study the problem and report its findings. The GAO released its report last September in a publication: “Nonfederal Efforts to Help Achieve Health Information Interoperability.”
The GAO’s investigators outlined five barriers to EHR interoperability. They also suggested that meaningful use (MU) requirements present a roadblock to information sharing. (more…)
