News, Analysis, Trends, Management Innovations for
Clinical Laboratories and Pathology Groups

Hosted by Robert Michel

News, Analysis, Trends, Management Innovations for
Clinical Laboratories and Pathology Groups

Hosted by Robert Michel
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Dartmouth Researchers Say that Doctors Now Work Fewer Hours Than Lawyers



Trend may affect workforce needs of clinical pathology laboratories, according to JAMA study

Doctors now work fewer hours than lawyers! This finding has serious implications for the healthcare industry in coming years. Clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups  will want to understand how this trend might affect their service relationships with physicians.

Researchers determined that—for the first time—doctors are working fewer hours than lawyers. They predict this trend could lead to doctor shortages as more and more baby boomer physicians retire. This study was published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

In an interview with a U.S. News and World Report reporter, the study’s lead author, Douglas Staiger, Ph.D., Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire stated, “This is an unprecedented decline that we haven’t seen before in physicians, and you don’t see it for other professions, like lawyers.”

Three Decades of Census Data on Doctors’ Work Hours

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IBM Invests $100 Million in Healthcare Informatics, but That is Not Unusual for IBM

Company will develop solutions for new reimbursement models, evidence-based care, and supporting health service delivery needs


Earlier this fall, IBM Corporation (NYSE: IBM) announced plans to invest $100 million specifically to advance IBM capabilities in three key areas of healthcare informatics. That seemed like a big deal that might affect clinical pathology, since IBM is one of the information technology (IT) giants in the United States.

However, Dark Daily editors made a surprising discovery as they researched the news of IBM’s new $100 million healthcare IT investment initiative. IBM has a habit of making $100 million investments in recent years! It has learned that dropping a press release that announces a $100 million IT investment initiative generates plenty of press coverage.

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Inside the Recent CLMA and USCAP Meetings

Last week, The Dark Report was in San Diego and Houston to attend the annual meetings of the United States & Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP) and the Clinical Laboratory Management Association (CLMA). Time spent in the exhibit halls of both meetings spoke volumes about the changing trends in the laboratory profession.

First was the USCAP meeting, conducted in San Diego, California. This is a growing meeting and attracts more than 3,000 pathologists from countries around the world. One can hear many different languages spoken as one walks among the crowd between sessions. The exhibit hall of USCAP is also growing. It featured 245 exhibitors and represented a good cross section of companies selling instrument systems, consumables, and services to anatomic pathology laboratories.

Of particular note were two things seen in USCAP’s exhibition hall. First, there was an intriguing spread of companies offering digital solutions for anatomic pathology. Technology is advancing and, even if the current generation of products fall a bit short of the functionality desired by customers, it is clear that lots of money is being invested to advance all aspects of pathology informatics and digital imaging. Second, molecular pathology was definitely a major product sector at this exhibition. Whether it was the marketing of new diagnostic assays or companies offering services in molecular pathology, there was high interest in how molecular pathology could be used to provide higher quality diagnostic support to pathologists and their referring clinicians.

Following the USCAP meeting, I flew to Houston, Texas to catch the CLMA annual meeting. Just as laboratory consolidation in the hospital industry over the past decade has steadily concentrated laboratory management duties into the hands of fewer people, CLMA has seen a corresponding shift in the numbers of attendees and the composition of vendors in its exhibition hall. One obvious difference from past years is the lower profile of several in vitro diagnostic (IVD) companies at this year’s event. Yet, a survey of vendors throughout the exhibition hall indicated that the people passing through the exhibition were qualified buyers and their expectation was that new business would be result from their participation at the exhibition.

Just as at the USCAP exhibition hall, CLMA’s exhibitor line-up featured a growing number of software and informatics vendors compared to past years. I take this as a sign that laboratory directors and pathologists are taking active steps to use information technology to guide their management of laboratory operations and work flow. The range of middleware solutions and vendors on the exhibition floor would be a response by vendors to the demand for those functions by laboratory customers.

Another observation was gained from attendance at the annual meetings of USCAP and CLMA. There is plenty of optimism about the future of laboratory medicine among attendees and vendors at both events. Despite the rapid pace of change in healthcare and unfavorable reimbursement trends, pathologists and laboratory managers believe that new diagnostic tests and advances in laboratory medicine are giving them important new tools to help patients and their physicians.

Your traveling editor,
Robert Michel

Send your comments and observations to Robert at rmichel@darkdaily.com.

Digital Pathology to be Highlighted at This Year’s Annual Pathology Informatics Conference

Digital pathology is major trend in the clinical pathology laboratory industry


Among the three dominant trends in anatomic pathology informatics, digital pathology is expected to be of the highest interest to the attendees at this year’s Pathology Informatics 2010 annual conference, which takes place in Boston on September 19-22.

“More pathologists are paying attention to digital pathology because of the swift advances in the technology in recent years,” stated Bruce Friedman, Active Emeritus Professor of Pathology at the University of Michigan Medical School and President of the Pathology Education Consortium (PEC) is a conference organizer. “For example, new digital scanners make it faster and cheaper to produce a whole slide image that has rich detail.

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Clinical Pathology Laboratories Need to Prepare the Next Generation of Lab Managers

Special clinical laboratory manager training to take place in four cities this fall


Predictions are that clinical laboratories and pathology groups across the nation will face a growing and serious shortage of skilled managers during the next 24 months. There are two primary reasons why this acute shortage of capable lab managers is soon to develop.

First, the oldest baby boomers turn 65 in January and the long-awaited wave of retirements will begin. This means the most experienced staff members in the medical laboratory—managers at the bench level, the section, and the department—will vacate those positions of responsibility. As these managers depart, the lab loses their decades of experience, along with their invaluable organizational knowledge.

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