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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‘Genetic Testing Handbook’ Provides Physicians, Pathologists, and Clinical Lab Managers with Comprehensive Reference for Clinical Genome and Exome Sequencing

This new tool offers clinicians the dos and don’ts of genetic testing, what physicians need to know to do it properly 

Clinical use of gene sequencing information has advanced to the point where a team of genetic experts has compiled and issued the Genetic Testing Handbook. The goal of the clinical genome and exome sequencing (CGES) handbook is to provide clinicians—including pathologists and clinical laboratory scientists—with a useful reference tool.

The authors of the Genetic Testing Handbook are Leslie G. Biesecker, M.D., of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) in Bethesda, Maryland, and Robert C. Green, M.D., M.P.H., a geneticist who is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Primer Distills Human Genome Project Technologies for Practical Use

“The technologies that were used for the Human Genome Project are now distilled down to practical tools that clinicians can use to diagnose and, hopefully, treat diseases in patients that they couldn’t treat before,” stated Biesecker, who serves as Chief and Senior Investigator at the NHGRI’s Medical Genomics and Metabolic Genetics Branch, in a press release issued by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). (more…)

New Problem for Pathologists and Physicians: Should Patients Be Told about Incidental Findings from Clinical Laboratory Tests?

Pathologists and clinical laboratory managers will need a strategy for handling incidental findings

When a genetic test for a certain type of cancer provides additional information that could affect the patient’s health, what is the ethical course of action for pathologists and clinical laboratory scientists? Should this information be disclosed to the physician who ordered that cancer test? In turn, should that physician inform his or her patient about these “incidental findings?”

All medical laboratory professionals will soon find themselves regularly dealing with this challenge because of the rapid increase in the number of molecular diagnostic assays and genetic tests that produce large quantities of data about the patient. (more…)

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