CDC Announces Presence of Rare, Tropical Illness in Three Non-adjacent States and Genetic Testing Indicates There May Be a Common Source of Exposure

Microbiologists will want to take note of the CDC’s statement that the illness can masquerade as other diseases It is the latest example of a bacterium uncommon in the United States that has infected patients in this country—one of whom has died. The three infected patients live in separate states, but genetic analysis indicates their cases may be related. Microbiologists and clinical laboratory managers may want to read the recent official health advisory from the Centers for Disease Control...

Clinical Laboratory Accuracy and Quality Is under Increased Scrutiny as Precision Medicine Puts Diagnostics in the Spotlight

As the public gains awareness of the role clinical laboratories play in modern healthcare, increased engagement and understanding of the technology underlying many of these advances could create risk for labs without transparent reporting protocols to both patients and the public In recent years, consumers have continually raised the bar in their expectation of quality when they interact with the healthcare system. Not only do patients expect providers—including clinical laboratories and...

Innovative Pathologists and Clinical Laboratory Scientists Use Diagnostic Management Teams to Support Physicians with More Accurate, Faster Diagnoses

At institutions such as University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, and Vanderbilt University Medical Center, pathologists are using diagnostic management teams to improve patient outcomes while lowering the medical costs Diagnostic Management Teams are a hot concept within the medical laboratory profession. In fact, a new annual DMT conference in Galveston, Texas, is the fastest-growing event in the clinical laboratory industry. This year’s Diagnostic Management Team Conference will take...

CRISPR-Related Tool Set to Fundamentally Change Clinical Laboratory Diagnostics, Especially in Rural and Remote Locations

SHERLOCK makes accurate, fast diagnoses for about 61-cents per test with no refrigeration needed; could give medical laboratories a new diagnostic tool Genetics researchers have been riveted by ongoing discoveries related to Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) for some time now and so have anatomic pathology laboratories. The diagnostic possibilities inherent in CRISPR have been established, and now, a new diagnostic tool that works with CRISPR is set to change...

Two Lab Leaders Present Different Ways to Help Physicians Get Greater Value from Clinical Pathology Laboratory Testing

In response to healthcare’s transformation, a pathologist and a lab CEO describe two powerful ways that medical laboratories can collaborate with physicians, patients, health systems, and health insurers to deliver more value DATELINE: Phoenix, Arizona—It may be appropriate that, with the pace of change heating up in both healthcare and the clinical laboratory industry, it was here in the hot Sonoran Desert that more than 500 medical laboratory professionals gathered last week for the annual...
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