Aug 7, 2015 | Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Laboratory Testing
Government officials and laboratory scientists urge citizens to ‘patronize only approved medical laboratory facilities and demand quality services’
In Nigeria, government officials and medical laboratory scientists are speaking out about the poor state of medical diagnoses across the country despite their efforts to upgrade accreditation and professionalism of the clinical laboratories that operate in Nigeria.
The widespread call for all medical laboratories to operate according to international standards reflects recognition by patients that they are not getting quality care in the African nation’s clinical laboratories. That is because most operate with obsolete medical laboratory equipment, untrained laboratory staff, and little regulation or government oversight.
“Healthcare providers in developing countries, like ours, lack basic diagnostic tools that would have been taken for granted in developed countries,” declared Olusola Akinniyi, M.B.B.S., Managing Director/CEO of Union Diagnostic and Clinical Services Plc of Nigeria. “In order to achieve the best possible medical outcome, advanced diagnostic examinations need to be applied to diagnose the patient’s underlying health problems precisely.” (more…)
Aug 29, 2014 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Laboratory Hiring & Human Resources, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Uncategorized
In both the hospital market and the ambulatory market, Epic has the best-selling electronic health records system, according to data issued by ONCHIT
Across the nation, clinical laboratories and pathology groups are busy interfacing their laboratory information (LIS) systems to the electronic health record (EHR) systems of their client hospitals and physicians. Yet, few lab managers know which EHR systems are dominating the market and which EHR systems are barely surviving.
In fact, it can be a challenge to understand market share by vendor. That is because market share can be determined in multiple ways. Dark Daily found three different rankings of EHR vendors. Each was based on slightly different sets of data. (more…)
Sep 23, 2013 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
As healthcare systems make patient safety a greater priority, the public reporting of pathology errors in Canada has no comparable track record in the United States
Errors in anatomic pathology testing in the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan made media headlines this summer. In each case, it was just a limited number of cases where errors at pathology labs resulted in inaccurate diagnoses and, in at least one case, a needless mastectomy for a patient.
At a time when health systems in Canada, the United States, and other developed nations are giving great emphasis to patient safety, disclosure of life-changing diagnostic errors to patients is appropriate. Consumers are holding physicians—including surgical pathologists—to a higher standard of care. (more…)
Mar 19, 2012 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Annual growth rates of 11% or more is predicted for molecular diagnostics in coming years
Just as consolidation and acquisitions reshaped the in vitro diagnostics (IVD) manufacturing industry and concentrated market share among just a handful of multi-billion dollar IVD giants, a similar consolidation can be seen in the molecular diagnostics sector. Today it is estimated that just nine global companies control 75% of the molecular diagnostics market.
That market concentration means clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups have a just a handful of primary vendors from which to purchase many of the molecular diagnostic assays and genetic tests that are used most frequently in clinical care.
Frost and Sullivan published a detailed study about the molecular diagnostics marketplace. The consulting firm estimated that worldwide sales of molecular diagnostics totaled $4.1 billion in 2010. By contrast, total IVD sales globally were about $48 billion in 2010. That total includes the routine, reference, and esoteric test kits, reagents, and supplies used every day by medical laboratories.
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Jul 24, 2009 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
AACC’s annual meeting still offers impressive array of scientific sessions and exhibits
Yesterday ended the 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Association of Clinical Chemistry (AACC) in Chicago, Illinois. Your Dark Daily team was there to ferret out anything new and interesting and to sniff out the latest trends in the business of laboratory testing.
As expected, this year’s event was considerably subdued. Attendance was clearly down, even though the exhibition hall featured more than 650 exhibitors—a number comparable to last year. But the exuberance of recent years was gone. For example, AACC did not make a public address announcement in the exhibit hall to announce the total number of attendees this year and thank everyone—at least not when your Dark Daily editor was in the exhibit hall. Speculation was that this year’s total attendance was down from the 20,000+ attendees in each of recent years. Estimates were that the attendance decline ranged from 20% to 30% fewer attendees.
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