Sep 7, 2016 | Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing
Oak Ridge National Laboratory sees potential for clinical laboratories and pathology groups to control disease and assess treatments
What do you get by blending microscopy with mass spectrometry? A new multi-tasking tool for studying disease progression and response to treatments in patients.
Combining these two technologies into a single device could also have uses for clinical laboratory scientists and pathologists. However, much research must be done before such a device is ready to obtain FDA clearance for use in clinical settings by the nation’s medical laboratories.
The new device was created by researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Oak Ridge, Tenn. They created an imaging system that supplies microscopy with spatially resolved chemical analyses.
This new development will be of high interest to surgical pathologists who work with microscopes and clinical chemists who currently perform mass spectrometry testing. It shows how one research effort has the potential to bring together two technologies regularly used in laboratory medicine. (more…)
Oct 14, 2015 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Sales and Marketing, Laboratory Testing, News From Dark Daily
Pathologists and clinical lab leaders heard about innovations in microbiology automation, genetic testing, use of mass spectrometry, and lab informatics advances
DATELINE: TORONTO, ONTARIO: From across Canada, clinical laboratory executives, pathologists, and health service administrators assembled last week to attend Executive Edge, this nation’s largest conference on innovations in the management and operation of medical laboratories.
Healthcare in Canada faces challenges that are common to healthcare systems in most developed countries. Demand for healthcare is growing at a fast pace due to an aging population and increased incidence of chronic disease. Government budgets cannot grow fast enough to meet the rising demand for healthcare services. (more…)
Jan 30, 2015 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations, News From Dark Daily
Two-day conference attracted an international audience of clinical laboratory scientists and addressed major trends in healthcare and laboratory medicine
DATELINE: BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND—This week in the industrial heartland of the United Kingdom, pathologists and medical laboratory professionals gathered for the 13th Annual Frontiers in Laboratory Medicine (FiLM) conference. The hot topics were new quality management standards for labs in the UK, innovative ways to improve utilization of clinical laboratory tests, and how first mover laboratories in the United Kingdom are using such disruptive technologies as digital pathology and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry.
FiLM is co-produced annual by the Association for Clinical Biochemistry and The Dark Report. Over the past decade, it has grown into the largest conference in Europe that addresses the management and operation of medical laboratories and histopathology laboratories.
New Medical Laboratory Standards include ISO 15189
Currently, medical laboratories in the United Kingdom are adapting to changes in accreditation and external quality assurance (EQA—known as proficiency testing in the United States). By 2018, all labs in the UK will need to be accredited to the standards of ISO 15189: Medical Laboratories. As this happens, the United Kingdom will join a growing list of nations that now use ISO 15189 as a basis for licensure and accreditation of histopathology and medical laboratories. (more…)
Jan 7, 2015 | Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Pathologists take note: In one clinical study, diagnostic results produced by a prototype “smart knife” matched postoperative histological diagnosis in 100% of cases
Will a smart knife used in cancer surgery eventually replace the need for a skilled pathologist to diagnose tissue collected during such surgeries?
That’s a question that may be asked in the future if an invention developed at Imperial College London makes it through clinical trials and is accepted for use in patient care. Researchers at Imperial College developed a surgical knife that allows doctors to discern cancer in real-time during surgery—and without consulting with a pathologist.
This invention, dubbed an intelligent knife or iKnife, could be a significant development for clinical laboratory professionals and pathologists if primary research is validated in planned clinical trials.
Pathologists know that when a patient is suspected of having cancer, the current protocols for frozen specimens call for tissue specimens to be sent from the surgical suite to the medical laboratory for analysis. This step may take 20 to 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, the study points out, the patient remains in surgery and under anesthesia. The surgeon waits to learn from the pathologist whether more tissue may need to be removed to ensure that no malignant cells remain in the patient. (more…)
Aug 15, 2014 | Digital Pathology, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing
The human proteome map provides a catalog of proteins expressed in nondiseased issues and organs to use as baseline in understanding changes that occur in disease
Given the growing importance of proteins in medical laboratory testing, pathologists will want to know about a major milestone recently achieved in this field. Researchers have announced that drafts of the complete human proteome have been released to the public.
Experts are comparing this to the first complete map of the human genome that was made public in 2000. Clinical laboratory managers and pathologists know how the availability of this information provided the foundation for rapid advances in understanding different aspects involving DNA and RNA.
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