Dec 14, 2016 | Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing
Because of ongoing advances in gene sequencing and the data analytics needed to interpret that information, new approaches to clinical care are becoming available to physicians and pathologists
COLD SPRING HARBOR, NEW YORK—Internationally-recognized as a leader in bringing together the brightest minds in genetics, the Banbury Center at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) produced a three-day conference here last week to explore the future state of anatomic pathology and identify opportunities in genetic medicine and image sciences that play to the strengths of the nation’s pathology laboratories.
“Evolution and Revolution in Anatomic Pathology: Automation, Machine-Assisted Diagnostics, Molecular Prognostics, and Theranostics” was the title, and the meeting’s organizers were CSHL and the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Northwell Health.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Founded in 1890
The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has a long history and an enviable reputation. It was founded in 1890 to train teachers in biology. However, by 1904, the laboratory’s mission had been expanded to include research in genetics. In 1924, the research mission was further enlarged to include quantitative biology—in particular, physiology and biophysics.
It was in 1968 that Nobel laureate James Watson, then a professor at Harvard University, accepted the directorship of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory while also keeping his professorship at Harvard University. Watson served at some level of leadership until 2008, when he became Chancellor Emeritus. Currently CSHL laboratory houses about 200 research-related personnel. (more…)
Jul 13, 2015 | Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing
Confirmation of the risks of exposure to formaldehyde and formalin may encourage safety officers in pathology labs to use tissue processing methods that don’t use this chemical
Pathologists, histotechnologists, and other medical laboratory professionals who regularly work with formalin and other chemicals used in histology laboratories, know they are dangerous to the health of those who work with them daily. These other chemicals include xylene and toluene.
Last summer, the National Academy of Sciences (Academy) issued a statement declaring that the Academy concurs with the 2011 Report of Carcinogens (RoC) listing formaldehyde as a known cause of cancer in humans. It was in August when the Academy issued its statement on this issue.
Exposure to Formaldehyde Linked to Three Types of Cancer
The Report of Carcinogens concluded that there is positive correlation between exposure to formaldehyde and three types of cancer: (more…)
Apr 7, 2014 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations, News From Dark Daily
Variability in how tissue is handled from one histopathology laboratory to another greatly affects quality of specimen and accuracy of the pathologist’s diagnosis
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA—Here on the shores of Lake Ontario, pathologists and clinical laboratory professionals gathered last week for a unique conference that focused on quality issues involving how tissue is handled from collection and transport to the histopathology laboratory processing to diagnosis by surgical pathologists.
Your Dark Daily editor was here to participate in the conference and learn from a first-rank panel of speakers. As many long-time readers know, patients, physicians, and health insurers expect increasingly higher levels of accuracy in how lab specimens are handled and greater precision in the resulting diagnosis that is produced by pathologists. Thus, a conference dedicated to tissue specimen integrity and quality is both timely and appropriate. (more…)
Nov 6, 2013 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Digital Pathology, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Medical laboratories could benefit by fewer customers for U.S tissue diagnostics products
Even as anatomic pathology laboratories in the United States see a decline in reimbursement for many pathology testing services, the demand for tissue diagnostics products will continue to be robust in coming years. There are at least three reasons why this will be true.
Research analysts at Frost & Sullivan predict that global sales of tissue diagnostics products will grow from $2.4 billion in 2012 to $3.5 billion by 2017. They attribute this to the increased use of anatomic laboratory automation.
These predictions were made in a new report issued by Frost & Sullivan. About 79% of the global tissue processing market is in the United States and Europe. (more…)
Oct 30, 2013 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Extraneous tissue cross-contamination found in all participating pathology laboratories Cross-tissue contamination, regardless of specimen volume or how frequently reagents were changed
Pathologists and histotechnologists have long known that traditional methods of processing tissue for diagnosis have the potential to cross-contaminate human biopsy specimens. This risk to patient safety and diagnostic accuracy was accepted over the decades because of the limitations of technology and inability to more precisely measure the performance of individual work processes in the histology laboratory.
In recent years, two things have begun to change this long-standing status quo in medical laboratories. These developments now make it possible to more accurately measure the performance of histology work processes. In turn, this allows an understanding of the true rate of errors that happen from the time a human biopsy specimen arrives in the anatomic pathology laboratory until the completed slides are ready to be diagnosed by a pathologist. (more…)
