No surprises—one lab’s approach to costly genetic testing
September 2014—Medical practice is no stranger to good things coming from bad, but lest anyone be in doubt, Children’s Hospital and Medical Center in Omaha provides a striking example. The bad, in this...
View ArticleA laboratory on the trail of troubling TSH results
September 2014—It would be a nightmare for any laboratory professional: a misdiagnosed and mistreated patient owing to an aberrant test result. Julia C. Drees, PhD, a scientific director for chemistry...
View ArticleFrom the President’s Desk: Premium PT—and more to come in 2015, 9/14
September 2014—Even as a newly minted pathologist, I knew that the CAP Surveys were critical tools to ensure patient safety and test validity. Still, I didn’t give them much thought. There was already...
View ArticleQC, noise, stat time—those and other details for 62 analyzers
September 2014—With nearly two dozen manufacturers of immunoassay analyzers represented in CAP TODAY’s product guide this month, the market is rich with options. At least three of those companies have...
View ArticleNew push for standard approach to critical values
September 2014—Newly reported survey data that show widely varying international practices on managing critical values may demonstrate the need for a new guideline—already in development—to help...
View ArticleMolecular Pathology Selected Abstracts, 9/14
September 2014—Noninvasive diagnosis of mutations by deep sequencing of cfDNA in NSCLC: Mutation analysis of actionable oncogenes in solid tumors commonly uses human tissue samples obtained through...
View ArticleClinical Pathology Selected Abstracts, 9/14
September 2014—Potential link between vitamin D and subclinical cerebrovascular disease: Vitamin D deficiency has been associated with several diseases, including hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and...
View ArticleAnatomic Pathology Selected Abstracts, 9/14
September 2014—Cytokeratin 17: an adjunctive marker of invasion in anal squamous neoplastic lesions: Diagnosing anal squamous cell carcinoma, which is often preceded by anal intraepithelial neoplasia,...
View ArticleNewsbytes, 9/14
September 2014—Why LIS limitations shouldn’t inhibit genomic testing: Many community-based hospitals don’t have the resources to perform complex genomic testing, but they shouldn’t let that deter them....
View ArticleQ & A Column, 9/14
September 2014—Occasionally on certain patients, when we draw for a CBC in the early morning, we get a low Hgb of 6 or 7 g/dL. We draw the same patient for a CBC in the afternoon and we get a higher...
View ArticlePut It on the Board, 9/14
September 2014—Simple blood tests, colossal contrasts on price: California hospitals have a pricing range for common blood tests so wide that it brings to mind the vast span of that state’s world...
View ArticleFlu view—tests, predictions for the upcoming season
October 2014—Whether exotic influenza viruses will surface this winter remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: The coming season will pack a punch in terms of promising diagnostics and forecasting...
View Article21 honored for patient care, strategy, safety, and service
October 2014—Stanley J. Robboy, MD, was presented Sept. 7 with the Pathologist of the Year award during an evening event at the CAP ’14 annual meeting in Chicago. At the same event, at the Hyatt...
View ArticleMolecular tumor boards: fixture or fad?
October 2014—Along with everything else the genomics revolution has wrought, there’s this: Molecular testing is threatening to turn medicine into an ongoing episode of “Hoarders.” So much information...
View ArticleMolecular Pathology Selected Abstracts, 10/14
October 2014—A gene panel to examine mosaic somatic mutations in cerebral malformations: Somatic mutations are widely recognized in cancer, often affecting prognosis and determining candidacy for use...
View ArticleNewsbytes, 10/14
October 2014—A conundrum: teaching pathology informatics to residents: Just as high schoolers are prone to protest, “We’re never going to need to use quadratic equations/literary theory/the periodic...
View ArticleAnatomic Pathology Selected Abstracts, 10/14
October 2014—Role of STAT6 immunohistochemistry in diagnosis of solitary fibrous tumors: Solitary fibrous tumor is an uncommon fibroblastic neoplasm. Although histologic characteristics and frequent...
View ArticlePut It on the Board, 10/14
October 2014—Leading pathologists and the CAP are encouraging laboratory professionals to use the social media website Twitter as a way to amplify lab medicine’s voice among clinicians, policymakers,...
View ArticleIn free CytoAtlas app, 750 images for 100+ diagnoses
October 2014—Like many cytopathology trainees, Charanjeet Singh, MD, who recently completed a cytopathology fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, found it challenging at times to find...
View ArticleIn lab QC, how much room for improvement?
October 2014—The debut of the CMS’ new quality control option, IQCP, has sharpened the focus on QC in the laboratory and raised hopes that risk management concepts can make QC more robust. But one of...
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