Presidents of Roche Diagnostics and Mayo Clinic Laboratories Discuss PAMA Reform and Upcoming Deep Cuts to Reimbursement for Common Lab Test

Organizations representing clinical laboratories and other critical healthcare providers urged Congress to pass the Saving Access to Laboratory Services Act by January 1, 2023, to prevent deep cuts in reimbursements Lessons about the essential role of clinical laboratories during a pandemic was the central theme in a significant publication released recently. The authors were the presidents of two of the nation’s largest healthcare companies and their goal was to connect the value clinical...

India’s Central Government Tasks 15 Viral Research and Clinical Laboratories to Perform Monkeypox Surveillance Testing

South Asian nation aims to do what US, UK, and Europe failed to do during start of COVID-19 pandemic and slow spread of disease while case counts are low With monkeypox quickly spreading around the world, India may be taking a lesson from western nations’ delayed response to COVID-19—including a sometimes slow availability of clinical lab testing for monkeypox—and preemptively increasing its national surveillance of the deadly social disease. On Aug. 29, the Hindustan Times reported that in an...

Medical Laboratories Respond to Monkeypox Outbreak Using CDC-Developed Diagnostic Test

The federal agency shipped tests to five commercial clinical laboratory companies, augmenting efforts by public health labs Medical laboratories in the US are ramping up their efforts to respond to an outbreak of monkeypox that has been spreading around the globe. Microbiologists and clinical laboratory scientists will be interested to learn that this infectious agent—which is new to the US—may be establishing itself in the wild rodent population in this country. If proved to be true, it means...

Supreme Court May Be Partly to Blame for Shortage of At-Home Rapid COVID-19 Tests During Pandemic

High court decision in 2012 altered patent law and effectively blocked protections for certain clinical laboratory diagnostic tests and procedures Clinical laboratory leaders and pathologists will be interested to learn that a US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) decision from 2012 may be partly to blame for the shortage of at-home COVID-19 rapid antigen tests while the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant surged this past winter. During that time, consumer demand for all COVID-19 at-home tests quickly depleted...

Mayo Clinic Laboratories Used Ingenuity, Flexibility, and Teamwork to Fast-Track COVID-19 Testing Capacity, Including Hiring Hundreds of Lab Workers

As coronavirus pandemic emerged, the Minnesota reference laboratory surged its testing capacity from 2,600 to 20,000 samples per day in an effort to meet ever-increasing demand Over the past several years, medical laboratory workforce shortages worldwide have challenged clinical laboratory managers to process increasing numbers of clinical laboratory tests with fewer staff. But that did not prepare them for the Herculean task of processing millions of tests each week! According to the CDC’s...
;