Apr 23, 2012 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Pathology
Public awaits findings from board of inquiry empaneled by the Alberta Health System
Once more, a province in Canada is dealing with public disclosure of unacceptable rates of errors in anatomic pathology testing services. This time it is the healthcare system of Alberta. Since November, the public has learned about two separate cases of individual pathologists who were determined to have misdiagnosed cancer cases.
But pathology errors turned out to be only part of this story. Public concern in Alberta about the quality of diagnostics services was further heightened by another round of newspaper stories later in December. This time, the news was about the discovery of imaging errors made by a radiologist working in one of Alberta’s hospitals.
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Jun 17, 2011 | Digital Pathology, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Pathology informaticist points out that not every slide in a patient’s case may need to be scanned and archived by a digital pathology system
Is digital pathology ready for prime time in the specialty of anatomic pathology? Many proponents of digital pathology would say “yes,” and the pathology laboratories now using digital pathology systems report significant benefits. But there are pathologists who argue that this is still a developing technology.
Like any new technology in clinical laboratory medicine and healthcare, digital pathology must demonstrate the right combination of cost-to-acquire, speed-in-use, and added-clinical-value, if it is to gain wide acceptance by pathologists. At the same time, “going digital” has transformed radiology, for example, and this example is often cited by boosters of digital pathology systems.
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Sep 27, 2010 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Clinical pathology laboratories will soon archive digital pathology images in their hospitals’ PACS
Digital pathology moves one step forward toward true “plug and play” with the recent approval of the DICOM supplement 145. These are the technical specifications that support whole-slide digital pathology images. Approval of these standards now makes it possible for clinical laboratories and pathology groups to store digital pathology images in a form that is compatible with the same DICOM archive systems used by hospitals and other providers to store radiology images.
The approval was issued in August and is a direct result of five years of work by the DICOM Working Group 26. There is a key benefit to DICOM supplement 145. When whole slide images and associated information are formatted to its specifications, it will be possible for an anatomic pathologist to retrieve and manage those images—regardless of which manufacturer’s digital pathology system produced the image.
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Apr 28, 2010 | Laboratory Pathology, News From Dark Daily
Speakers at the Executive War College discuss how their laboratories are supporting integration in support of better information flows and clinical service enhancements
As you read this, the second day of the 15th Annual Executive War College on Clinical and Pathology Laboratory Management is taking place in New Orleans, Louisiana. There is an enthusiastic crowd of pathologists, administrators, and lab managers in attendance.
During the opening session yesterday morning, a common theme among the speakers was the tighter integration of clinical pathology laboratory testing within the healthcare continuum. Probably the most innovative example was offered by Scott W. Binder, M.D., Senior Vice Chair of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Geffen UCLA School of Medicine in Los Angeles California.
Executive War College 2010 is now underway in New Orleans.
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Aug 12, 2009 | Digital Pathology, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Use of digital pathology imaging allows both specialists to jointly review cases
In a pioneering effort at The University of Kansas, a radiologist and a pathologist are working side by side to review each other’s primary images and issue an integrated diagnostic report for breast cancer patients. The big surprise from this groundbreaking collaboration is a measurable improvement in diagnostic accuracy, leading to improved patient outcomes.
By reaching across the traditional silos that separate the daily practice of radiology from the daily practice of pathology, these two specialists have demonstrated that the concept of diagnostic integration of in vivo (imaging) and in vitro (pathology) diagnostics can demonstrably improve patient care. In part, this happens because of improved concordance in the reports issued by the radiologist and the pathologist.
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