Feb 24, 2010 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Uncategorized
In recent years, Newfoundland pathology lab’s errors involving breast cancer testing made headlines
Once again, Newfoundland finds itself in the headlines about healthcare. This time it is not about breast cancer testing problems in its pathology laboratories. Instead, media reports are trumpeting the disclosure that Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams had quietly left the country earlier this month to undergo major heart surgery in the United States.
Danny Williams’ decision caused negative reactions among the press and commentators in the United States and Canada. After all, why would a senior elected official from Newfoundland decide to leave Canada, which has national health insurance, and seek care in the U.S., where the Congress is debating the merits of a national health insurance plan? It was disclosed that Williams underwent a major heart procedure on Thursday, February 4, at an undisclosed hospital in Florida.
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Feb 23, 2010 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Gives human resource departments useful information about salary trends for lab managers
In recent years, the clinical pathology laboratory profession has lacked a reliable national survey of compensation trends for clinical laboratory executives, administrators, directors, pathologists, and managers. That situation may soon change, as two lab organizations are actively collecting the compensation data required to produce a useful national survey of laboratory compensation and benefits.
Slone Partners of Miami Beach, Florida, national recruitment experts for the diagnostic laboratory industry, and The Dark Report are collaborating to produce what is believed to be the nation’s first-ever national survey of trends in compensation, benefits, and perks paid to senior executives, lab administrators, lab managers, pathologists, and Ph.D.s working in the United States.
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Feb 10, 2010 | Digital Pathology, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Image is 142,603 by 105,000 pixels in size (or 41.8GB) and was scanned at a 1μm pixel resolution
Is it the largest pathology image ever produced? In an article, the journal BioOptics World reports that a breast tissue image may in fact be the largest digital pathology image ever produced. The image was produced by the TISSUEscope 4000 from Biomedical Photometrics Inc. (BPI) of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
The image is available online at http://www.confocal.com/ABOUT/Human_Breast-H&E.html. The announcement of the “largest pathology image ever produced” is a clever way for BPI to call attention to it scanning system. The company describes its product as a high-throughput panoramic scanning system for tissue slides and microarrays that images an area more than 100 times that of an ordinary microscope in a single scan.
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Feb 1, 2010 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Sir Muir Gray addresses Frontiers in Laboratory Medicine
“Manage knowledge as though it is money” was the advice that Sir Muir Gray offered pathologists and clinical laboratory scientists attending last week’s Frontiers in Laboratory Medicine (FiLM) conference that took place in Birmingham, England. He was explaining how 20th Century Medicine is evolving into 21st Century Medicine.
Sir Muir Gray is the Chief Knowledge Officer for Great Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) National Library for Health.
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Jan 27, 2010 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Speakers at FiLM conference emphasize that laboratories must organize to support ongoing integration of clinical care
BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND: As you read this, several hundred pathology and clinical laboratory leaders are gathered in Birmingham, England, today to learn about the latest trends and most important developments in healthcare and laboratory medicine. They have assembled to participate in the Eighth Annual Frontiers in Laboratory Medicine (FiLM).
The short term news for pathology laboratories in the United Kingdom is discouraging. The National Health Service recently declared a goal of reducing spending on laboratory testing by £500 million (US $807.2 million) in upcoming budget cycles. This represents a reduction from current funding levels of about 15%.
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