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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Clinical Laboratory and Pathology Leaders in Canada Gather to Assess New Diagnostic Technologies and Respond to the Acute Shortage of Medical Technologists

There was cautious optimism about the ability of Canada’s medical laboratories to innovate in ways that advance patient care, while recognizing the ongoing challenge of adequate lab staffing and budget constraints

TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA—This week, more than 150 leaders representing clinical laboratories, anatomic pathology labs, in vitro diagnostics (IVD) companies, and provincial health officials gathered for the first “Canadian Diagnostic Executive Forum” (CDEF) since 2019. It would be apt to say that the speakers objectively addressed all the good, the bad, and the ugly of Canada’s healthcare system and its utilization of medical laboratory testing services.

Over the two days of the conference, speakers and attendees alike concurred that the two biggest issues confronting clinical laboratories in Canada were inadequate staffing and an unpredictable supply chain. There also was agreement that the steady increase in prices, fueled by inflation, is exacerbating continuing cost increases in both lab salaries and lab supplies.

Canada’s Health System Has Several Unique Attributes

Canada’s healthcare system has two unique attributes that differentiate it from those of other nations. First, healthcare is mandated by a federal law, but generally each of Canada’s 13 provinces and territories operates its own health plan. Thus, the health system in each province and territory may cover a different mix of clinical services, therapeutic drugs, and medical procedures. The federal government typically pays 40% of a province’s health costs and the province funds the balance.

Second, it is a fact that 90% of the Canadian population lives within 150 miles of the United States border. Yet there are provinces with large populations that have geography that ranges from the US border to north of the Arctic Circle. These provinces have a major challenge to ensure equal access to healthcare regardless of where their citizens live.

During day one of the conference, several presentations addressed innovations that supported those labs’ efforts to deliver value and timely insights during the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, a lab team in Alberta launched a research study involving SARS-CoV-2 virus surveillance from the earliest days of the outbreak. This study was presented by Mathew Diggle, PhD, FRCPath, Associate Professor and Program Lead for the Public Health Laboratory (ProvLab) Medical-Scientific Staff at Alberta Precision Laboratories in Edmonton, Alberta. 

Study Designed to Identify Coinfections with COVID-19

While performing tens of thousands of COVID-19 tests from the onset of the pandemic, and identifying the emergence of variants, the ProvLab team also tracked co-infection involving other respiratory viruses.

“This is one of the largest eCoV [endemic coronavirus] studies performed during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Diggle said. “This broad testing approach helped to address a pivotal diagnostic gap amidst the emergence of a novel pathogen: cross-reactivity with other human coronaviruses that can cause similar clinical presentations. This broad surveillance enabled an investigation of cross-reactivity of a novel pathogen with other respiratory pathogens that can cause similar clinical presentations.

“Fewer than 0.01% of specimens tested positive for both SARS-CoV-2 and an eCoV,” he explained. “This suggested no significant cross-reactivity between SARS-CoV-2 and eCoVs on either test and provided a SARS-CoV-2 negative predictive value over 99% from an eCoV-positive specimen … The data we collected was highly compelling and the conclusion was that there was no coinfection.”

Kevin D. Orr

Chairing the two days of presentations at this weeks’ Canadian Diagnostic Executive Forum was Kevin D. Orr (above), Senior Director of Hospital Business at In-Common Laboratories. He also served on the program for this national conference serving clinical laboratories, anatomic pathology labs, and in vitro diagnostics (IVD) companies throughout Canada. This was the first gathering of this conference since 2019. Attendees were enthusiastic about the future of medical laboratory services in Canada, despite lab staffing shortages and rising costs due to inflation. (Photo copyright The Dark Report.)

Clinical Laboratory Regionalization in Quebec

One of Canada’s largest projects to regionalize and harmonize clinical laboratory services is proceeding in Quebec. Leading this effort is Ralph Dadoun, PhD, Project Director for OPTILAB Montreal, which is part of the Ministry of Health and Social Services in Quebec. The ambitious goal for this project is to move the 123 clinical laboratories within the province into 12 clusters. Initial planning was begun in 2013, so this project is in its ninth year of implementation.

During his presentation, Dadoun explained that the work underway in the 12 clusters involves creating common factors in these categories:

  • Uniform test names.
  • Common test codes, labels, test reporting format.
  • Common abbreviations.
  • Uniform quality indicators (e.g., nonconformities, specimen acceptability, etc.).
  • Implementation consistent with and respecting ISO-15189 criteria.

Another notable achievement in Quebec is the progress made to implement a common laboratory information system (LIS) within all 12 clusters. The first three laboratory clusters are undergoing their LIS conversions to the same platform during the next 180 days. The expectation is that use of a common LIS across all clinical laboratory sites in Quebec will unlock benefits in a wide spectrum of lab activities and work processes.

The 2022 CDEF featured speakers from most of the provinces. The common themes in these presentations were the shortage of lab personnel across all technical positions, disruptions in lab supplies, and the need to support the usual spectrum of lab testing services even as lab budgets are getting squeezed.

At the same time, there was plenty of optimism. Presentations involving adoption of digital pathology, advances in early disease detection made possible by new diagnostic technologies, and the expansion of precision medicine showed that clinical laboratories in Canada are gaining tools that will allow them to contribute to better patient care while helping reduce the downstream costs of care.

The Canadian Diagnostics Executive Forum is organized by a team from In-Common Laboratories in North York, Toronto, Ontario. Founded in 1967, it is a private, not-for-profit company that works with public hospitals and laboratory medicine providers. Information about CDEF can be found at its website, where several of this year’s presentations will be available for viewing.

Robert L. Michel 

Related Information:

Canadian Diagnostic Executive Forum 2022

Broad Respiratory Testing to Identify SARS-Cov-2 Viral Co-Circulation and Inform Diagnostic Stewardship in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Canadian Diagnostics Executive Forum Will Provide Firsthand Insights into How Clinical Laboratories Can Leverage Technology and Innovation to ‘Do More with Less’

Medical Laboratories Need to Prepare as Public Health Officials Deal with Latest Coronavirus Outbreak

The CDC has developed a test kit, but deployment to public health laboratories has been delayed by a manufacturing defect

Medical laboratories are on the diagnostic front lines of efforts in the US to contain the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus responsible for the disease COVID-19, which was first reported in Wuhan City, China. SARS-CoV-2 differs from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), which caused an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003.

Currently, all testing for SARS-CoV-2 in the US is performed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), using a CDC-developed rapid test known as the 2019-nCoV Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel. But soon, testing will be performed by city and state public health (reference) laboratories as well.

At present, medical laboratories are collecting blood specimens for testing by authorized public health labs. However, clinical laboratories should prepare for the likelihood they will be called on to perform the testing using the CDC test or other tests under development.

“We need to be vigilant and understand everything related to the testing and the virus,” said Bodhraj Acharya, PhD, Manager of Chemistry and Referral Testing at the Laboratory Alliance of Central New York, in an exclusive interview with Dark Daily. “If the situation comes that you have to do the testing, you have to be ready for it.”

The CDC has set up a website with information about SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) including a section specifically for laboratory professionals. The “Information for Health Departments on Reporting a Person Under Investigation (PUI) or Laboratory-Confirmed Case for COVID-19” section includes guidelines for collecting, handling, and shipping specimens. It also has laboratory biosafety guidelines.

The current criteria for determining PUIs include clinical features, such as fever or signs of lower respiratory illness, combined with epidemiological risks, such as recent travel to China or close contact with a laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 patient. The CDC notes that “criteria are subject to change as additional information becomes available” and advises healthcare providers to consult with state or local health departments if they believe a patient meets the criteria.

Bodhraj Acharya, PhD (above), is Manager of Chemistry and Referral Testing at the Laboratory Alliance of Central New York. In an exclusive interview with Dark Daily, he stressed the importance that medical laboratories be prepared. “We need to be vigilant and be active and understand everything related to this virus and the testing. That’s the role of clinical laboratory scientists, to be ready because this can become a pandemic anytime. It can spread and tomorrow the CDC could announce it is disseminating the test to designated laboratories.” (Photo copyright: Laboratory Alliance of Central New York.)

Test Kit Problems Delay Diagnoses

On Feb. 4, the FDA issued a Novel Coronavirus Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) allowing state and city public health laboratories, as well as Department of Defense (DoD) labs, to perform presumptive qualitative testing using the Real-Time Reverse Transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) diagnostic panel developed by the CDC. Two days later, the CDC began distributing the test kits, a CDC statement announced. Each kit could test 700 to 800 patients, the CDC said, and could provide results from respiratory specimens in four hours.

However, on Feb. 12, the agency revealed in a telebriefing that manufacturing problems with one of the reagents had caused state laboratories to get “inconclusive laboratory results” when performing the test.

“When the state receives these test kits, their procedure is to do quality control themselves in their own laboratories,” said Nancy Messonnier, MD, Director of the CDC National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD), during the telebriefing. “Again, that is part of the normal procedures, but in doing it, some of the states identified some inconclusive laboratory results. We are working closely with them to correct the issues and as we’ve said all along, speed is important, but equally or more important in this situation is making sure that the laboratory results are correct.”

During a follow-up telebriefing on Feb. 14, Messonnier said that the CDC “is reformulating those reagents, and we are moving quickly to get those back out to our labs at the state and local public health labs.”

Above is a picture of CDC’s laboratory test kit for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). CDC is shipping the test kits to laboratories CDC has designated as qualified, including US state and local public health laboratories, Department of Defense (DOD) laboratories, and select international laboratories. The test kits are bolstering global laboratory capacity for detecting SARS-CoV-2. (Photo and caption copyright: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.)

Serologic Test Under Development

The current test has to be performed after a patient shows symptoms. The “outer bound” of the virus’ incubation period is 14 days, meaning “we expect someone who is infected to have symptoms some time during those 14 days,” Messonnier said. Testing too early could “produce a negative result,” she continued, because “the virus hasn’t established itself sufficiently in the system to be detected.”

Messonnier added that the agency plans to develop a serologic test that will identify people who were exposed to the virus and developed an immune response without getting sick. This will help determine how widespread it is and whether people are “seroconverting,” she said. To formulate this test, “we need to wait to draw specimens from US patients over a period of time. Once they have all of the appropriate specimens collected, I understand that it’s a matter of several weeks” before the serologic test will be ready, she concluded.

“Based on what we know now, we believe this virus spreads mainly from person to person among close contacts, which is defined [as] about six feet,” Messonnier said at the follow-up telebriefing. Transmission is primarily “through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes. People are thought to be the most contagious when they’re most symptomatic. That’s when they’re the sickest.” However, “some spread may happen before people show symptoms,” she said.

The virus can also spread when people touch contaminated surfaces and then touch their eyes, nose, or mouth. But it “does not last long on surfaces,” she said.

Where the Infection Began

SARS-CoV-2 was first identified during an outbreak in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. Soon thereafter, hospitals in the region “were overwhelmed” with cases of pneumonia, Dr. Acharya explained, but authorities could not trace the disease to a known pathogen. “Every time a new pathogen originates, or a current pathogen mutates into a new form, there are no molecular tests available to diagnose it,” he said.

So, genetic laboratories used next-generation sequencing, specifically unbiased nontargeted metagenomic RNA sequencing (UMERS), followed by phylogenetic analysis of nucleic acids derived from the hosts. “This approach does not require a prior knowledge of the expected pathogen,” Dr. Acharya explained. Instead, by understanding the virus’ genetic makeup, pathology laboratories could see how closely it was related to other known pathogens. They were able to identify it as a Betacoronavirus (Beta-CoVs), the family that also includes the viruses that cause SARS and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).

This is a fast-moving story and medical laboratory leaders are advised to monitor the CDC website for continuing updates, as well as a website set up by WHO to provide technical guidance for labs.

—Stephen Beale

Related Information:

CDC Tests for COVID-19

CDC: Information for Laboratories

About Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Real-Time RT-PCR Panel for Detection 2019-Novel Coronavirus

Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Outbreak

Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Technical Guidance: Laboratory Testing for 2019-nCoV in Humans

Novel Coronavirus Lab Protocols and Responses: Next Steps

WHO: China Leaders Discuss Next Steps in Battle Against Coronavirus Outbreak

Transcript for CDC Telebriefing: CDC Update on Novel Coronavirus February 12

Transcript for CDC Media Telebriefing: Update on COVID-19 February 14

Shipping of CDC 2019 Novel Coronavirus Diagnostic Test Kits Begins

Lean and New Diagnostic Technologies Fuel Innovations at the Pathology Department at University of Nebraska-Omaha

Dark Daily gets tour of clinical lab and anatomic pathology activities

DATELINE: Omaha, Nebraska—This city may be in America’s heartland and best-known for corn-fed beef and billionaire-investor Warren Buffet, but its premier academic center clinical pathology laboratory is breaking new ground in several important ways.

Last Thursday, your Dark Daily editor was hosted for a site visit by the Department of Pathology and Microbiology at the University of Nebraska-Omaha (UNO). From adoption of digital pathology solutions to assertive use of Lean and Six Sigma techniques across the span of clinical laboratory and histology laboratory operations, advanced use of latest-generation medical laboratory testing technology was on display.

Using Lean and Value Process Maps in the Clinical Laboratory

Across the United States, every academic center Department of Pathology has activities and goals which distinguish it in specific ways when compared to other pathology departments. During this site visit, Dark Daily recognized three distinct laboratory management activities taking place in the clinical pathology laboratory at the 525-bed University of Nebraska Medical Center laboratory.

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