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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Further Advances in the Healthcare Price Transparency Trend Reveal Why Physicians Are Supportive; Hospitals and Medical Labs Are Slow to Post Their Prices

Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina expands a website that allows consumers to check the prices charged by physicians; Clinical labs are watching the price transparency trend

Once again, a major health insurer has raised the stakes on transparency of the prices charged by physicians, hospitals, clinical laboratories, and anatomic pathology groups. Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC) recently expanded a website for its members that lists what the insurer pays to different providers for various clinical services.

The database is searchable. Members have been able to access it since January of 2015. The website lists 1,200 non-emergency procedures, along with the average price that BCBS pays for each one.

Physicians Also Want Price Transparency

Consumers want more transparency of the prices charged by providers. But they are not the only group pushing for it. In a surprising twist, physicians in North Carolina were supportive of having their prices posted on a public website. (more…)

Samsung’s New All-in-One Bio-Processor Chip Launches Amid Controversy Among Physicians and Medical Laboratory Professionals over the True Value of Wearable Health-monitoring Devices

Samsung is introducing a new, wearable, all-in-one chip for monitoring and processing health data that has the potential to test for common medical laboratory test biomarkers

Leading the drive to create wearable diagnostic devices are companies manufacturing products designed to serve the markets for consumer fitness and consumer wellness. Now a major electronics company says it has a new chip that will redefine how consumers and patients use wearable monitoring and diagnostic devices.

Samsung Electronics has already begun production of this new chip. Its Bio-Processor chip is different from the chips contained in other wearable devices currently on the market in that it is an “all-in-one” chip that could alter how wearable technology functions. Therefore, this new product has the potential to do some diagnostic testing that is currently performed in medical laboratories.

Currently, most wearable devices marketed to consumers for improving health and fitness measure steps and heart rate. The new chip from Samsung is claimed to be capable of considerably more.

A Single Chip for Generating Copious Amounts of Big Data (more…)

Researchers at University of Rhode Island Unveil Lab-on-Paper Test Capable of Multireagent Diagnostics: Could Enable ‘Diagnostics Without the Lab’ say Developers

New diagnostic capabilities could enable clinical laboratories to obtain multiple outcomes on single fluidic strip tests

Researchers at the University of Rhode Island (URI) have developed a paper-based microfluidic valve technology that some claim may revolutionize existing lateral-flow tests. There is the potential for this innovation to eventually enable pathology groups and medical laboratories to conduct a wide variety of complex medical diagnostics on single fluidic test strips, such as those used to diagnose pregnancy and strep throat, according to a university statement.

Testing Multiple Biomarkers Using a Single Test Strip

Fluidic test strips commonly in use today are generally capable of rendering only one result. However, by combining their new paper-based valve platform with standards strip tests, the URI research team has produced strip tests capable of answering more challenging medical questions.

The evolution of the new technology, dubbed “Lab-on-Paper,” follows the development of the team’s earlier “lab-on-a-chip” device, which the researchers began developing back in 2005. (more…)

Cleveland Clinic Gives Patients Statewide 24/7 Access to Physicians through Smartphones, iPads, Tablets and Online: Will Telemedicine Also Involve Pathologists?

New service allows patients statewide to access urgent care via telephones and other devices as Cleveland Clinic positions itself to be a 24/7 provider of choice

Urgent care by telephone is the latest patient-centric and customer-friendly medical service to be offered by the Cleveland Clinic. It is also the first 24-hour online statewide healthcare service of its kind in Ohio, a milestone that has implications for pathologists and clinical laboratory executives because lab testing is often required in support of patients wanting access to urgent care, particularly after hours.

Express Care Online (formerly MyCare Online) is the Cleveland Clinic’s new telemedicine service. It enables patients to see a medical professional for urgent matters via computer or smartphone 24 hours a day/seven days a week, according to a Cleveland Clinic statement. (more…)

New Medical Laboratory Test from Washington University School of Medicine Could One Day Replace the Popular PCR Assays Used by Many Pathologists

Called ‘ViroCap,’ this new diagnostic technology is able to discover more viruses in patient samples, as compared to PCR genome sequencing tests

It could be the ultimate multi-analysis medical laboratory test ever. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed a diagnostic test that they claim tests for any virus infecting people and animals.

The new test, called ViroCap, detects viruses that standard tests based on genome sequencing cannot, according to a university statement.

Viruses Make for a Popular Research Subject

Are virus tests going, well, viral? It was just a few weeks ago that Dark Daily reported on research at Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) aimed at unlocking virus detection beyond one pathogen at a time. (See Dark Daily, “Researchers at Howard Hughes Medical Institute Develop Blood Test That Reveals a Patient’s Viral History; Could Reduce Unnecessary Clinical Laboratory Testing,” December, 30, 2015.)

The HHMI research resulted in VirScan, an alternative to medical laboratory tests that test for specific viruses one at a time, and which can detect all diseases a patient has had over his or her lifetime, according to an HHMI news statement about the new technology. (more…)

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