For Embattled Medical Laboratory Company Theranos, Bad News Keeps on Coming After Two Federal Inspections Show Problems in Certain Lab Practices

High rates of variability from one drop to another raise questions about the reliability of point of care testing equipment and companies that collect lab specimens only with finger sticks Since last fall, one news report after another has come out with bad news for Theranos Inc., the high-profile medical laboratory company. The reports have ranged from dissatisfaction among Theranos’ partners, such as Walgreens and Capital BlueCross, to failed inspection reports from the federal Centers for...

Rice University Researchers Publish Study about Variation in Drop-to-Drop Samples of Capillary Blood Collected by Fingerprick and Used for Clinical Laboratory Testing

Researchers determined that as many as nine successive capillary blood drops must be collected and tested to achieve results that would be comparable to testing with venous blood A new study is raising questions about the implications of using fingerprick blood samples for point-of-care tests. Done by researchers at Rice University’s Department of Bioengineering, the study suggests clinicians use measurements with caution when assessing patients’ conditions based on the results of clinical...

New Biosensing Film Can Diagnose Both Viral and Bacterial Infections Cheaply and Without the Need for Traditional Clinical Pathology Laboratory Tests

Researchers at Florida Atlantic University believe this technology could also be used to detect bacteria in food and water and to follow patients’ progress after leaving acute or outpatient care New technology could shift the paradigm in infectious disease testing by clinical laboratories, while also giving hospitals a faster way to identify hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) and monitor patients for infections post-discharge. The diagnostic technology is built into a special “biosensing...

New Handheld Imaging Device Can Diagnose Melanoma in Physicians’ Offices, Potentially Reducing the Volume of Skin Biopsies Referred to Pathology Labs

This diagnostic instrument would be preferred by patients and physicians alike because it is noninvasive and provides immediate results Dermapathologists will be interested to learn about a new handheld, point-of-care (POC) device that images melanoma tumors and enables the in vivo diagnosis of melanoma. Because this diagnostic technology is noninvasive and provides immediate results, it is likely to be preferred by patients and doctors alike and could thus substantially reduce the volume of...

University of Washington Bioengineers Discover Simple Technique to Use Ordinary Paper for Cheap Point-of-Care Medical Laboratory Tests

This technique transforms ordinary paper into a biofunctional medium that could support a variety of diagnostic tests and lower the cost of clinical laboratory testing Is the clinical laboratory profession ready for a diagnostic technology that uses ordinary copy paper as the foundation for applying the reagents needed to run any number of fast, portable, accurate, and cheap medical laboratory assays? A recent technology breakthrough may make this possible in just a few years. A bioengineering...
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