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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Many Hospitals and Health Systems Report Flat or Falling Rates of Inpatient Admissions, a Trend that Causes Hospital Laboratory Budgets to Shrink

Weaker finances at the nation’s hospitals causes administrators to further shrink the budgets for clinical laboratory and anatomic pathology services

Hospital admissions across the country continue to be flat or in decline over recent years. The result is less revenue for many hospitals. As a result, administrators continue to shrink the budgets of hospital service lines—including clinical laboratory services. For pathologists and clinical laboratory leaders, this poses the challenge of setting innovative strategies that take into account the changes in payment and delivery models.

Hospital Inpatient Admissions Have Been Declining over Recent Years

Modern Healthcare (MH) recently published a story on the declining inpatient admissions trend. The story, written by Rachel Landen, focused on admission rates at thirteen large hospital systems for the third quarter of 2014. These included: (more…)

Leaders at the Association for Pathology Informatics Conference Issue Broad Call to Action in Response to Clinical and Financial Threats to Pathology Profession

Other topics of keen interest at the meeting were digital pathology, whole-slide imaging, and the role of pathology informatics in healthcare ‘big data’

PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA—During their annual meeting here last week, pathologists who are members of the Association for Pathology Informatics (API) made it clear that they are prepared to support fast and radical changes to anatomic pathology and clinical pathology.

Several speakers called attention to specific threats already disrupting the long-established model of the private pathology group practice. There was also no disagreement that cuts in fee-for-service reimbursement for key anatomic pathology CPT codes were already eroding the financial stability of many pathology practices and pathology lab companies. (more…)

UPMC to Use Digital Pathology Imaging to Provide Anatomic Pathology Consulting Services to China

Second-opinion consults will be handled by UPMC’s sub-specialist pathologists


Here’s a unique anatomic pathology collaboration that crosses international borders and will utilize state-of-the-art digital pathology technology to support subspecialty pathologist consultations between the United States and China.

In recent weeks, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) disclosed that it will provide a range of healthcare services to what is only described as “the largest pathology laboratory in Shanghai.” Of particular interest to pathologists and clinical laboratory managers in the United States, is the fact that pathologists at UPMC will provide second opinion anatomic pathology services to this as-yet-unnamed Chinese pathology laboratory.

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Tech-Savvy Doctors Are Putting Smartphones and iPads to Work in their Medical Practice

Clinical Pathology Laboratories Will Need to Securely Make Lab Test Data Available to Mobile Device Users

Use of handheld mobile devices by physicians and nurses is exploding. This trend has important implications for clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups, since clinicians quickly demand to access laboratory test data on their handheld mobile devices.

However, it is hospitals and health systems which are the first healthcare institutions that need to find a solution to enable appropriate use of handheld mobile devices by physicians, nurses, and other caregivers. Despite the efforts of chief information officers (CIOs) to maintain control over their institution’s informatics network, doctors and nurses are bringing their personal handheld mobile devices into the hospital and want to use them to access healthcare data.
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Pathologists Soon to say Sayonara to Glass Slides!

Digital Pathology Imaging: Coming Soon to a Pathology Group near You!

Will pathologists soon say “sayonara” to glass slides? Plenty of smart money already bets the answer to that question is “yes”! Every pathologist in the United States and abroad should be watching developments in whole slide imaging and digital pathology systems. That’s because digital pathology imaging is a trend with momentum-and it also has the potential to be disruptive, although probably not in the short term.

One powerful sign that digital imaging in pathology is ready to go mainstream is the take-up of digital imaging solutions and digital pathology systems by leading pathology laboratories in the United States and developed countries across the globe. These are academic and tertiary center pathology labs, along with major private pathology companies. As the pathology profession’s first-movers and early adopters, it is these laboratories which set the pace for the entire profession. Their acceptance and growing use of digital imaging and digital pathology systems can be taken as evidence that the current generation of imaging and informatics technologies perform adequately.

However, there is another powerful force propelling digital imaging forward in anatomic pathology. It is the emergence of molecular assays which incorporate digital images and use either computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) or pattern recognition software to help the pathologist make a precise diagnosis. By design, these molecular tests require the pathologist to work from a digital image of the specimen. At The Dark Report‘s  second annual Molecular Summit on the Integration of In Vivo and In Vitro Diagnostics, conducted last February in Philadelphia, examples of these types of emerging assays were abundant. (more…)

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