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Anatomic pathology
Anatomic pathology is about diagnosing disease through the examination of organs and tissue samples by using a microscope, or through molecular, biochemical or immunological means.
It differs from clinical pathology, where diseases are diagnosed through analyzing bodily fluids in a lab.
In anatomic pathology, a physician trained in pathology examines surgical specimens (e.g., from a biopsy). This contrasts from clinical pathology, where blood, throat cultures, and urine as sent to a lab for analysis to determine whether a patient either has or is at risk for several biological diseases.
The American Board of Pathology is one of the primary certification organizations for anatomic pathologists. To be certified in anatomic pathology, a physician must complete four years of medical school and three years of residency. To be certified in both anatomic and clinical pathology, a physician must do four years of residency.
Anatomic pathologists typically work in hospitals, and pathology in general is most times practiced in hospitals and academic medical centers, where research is being conducted.
UnitedHealth Rumored to Be Excluding Labs from Its Network
IN RECENT DAYS, RUMORS HAVE SURFACED that UnitedHealthcare has begun to terminate the contracts it holds with a number of regional and non-national clinical laboratories. This news surfaced just as The Dark Report went to press. Given its importance to the clinical laboratory indust…
Quest Acquires Two Labs, Two Other Health Firms
CEO SUMMARY: In the span of four days in September, Quest Diagnostics agreed to buy two lab companies and the lab testing service line of a third firm. In August, it purchased wellness company Provant Health, which had earlier filed a bankruptcy action. Each of these transactions helps Qu…
Respected Pathology Consultant Laurence J. Peterson Dies
Many pathologists currently leading academic pathology programs and private pathology groups got some of their best business advice from Laurence J. Peterson, CPA. For more than 30 years, Peterson was involved in the operation of both clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups throughout the…
Morgan Stanley Report Shows 8% of Hospitals at Risk of Closure
AMONG THE ROUGHLY 6,500 HOSPITALS OPERATING in the United States, only about 125 (2.5%) have closed in the past five years. But in the coming years, some 450 hospitals are at risk of closing. Analysts at Morgan Stanley said 600 other hospitals have weak finances that could lead them to close. In the…
Will Hospital Labs Anchor Integrated Care?
STEP BY STEP, HEALTHCARE IN THE UNITED STATES is moving toward a system in which clinical care is fully integrated and providers are reimbursed for the value they provide. This trend presents clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups with a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge comes…
Pathology Groups Should Act Now to Define Value
CEO SUMMARY: Payers and health system administrators generally agree that healthcare is moving away from fee-for-service toward value-based payment. Because adoption of value-based contracts is slower for pathologists than for other providers, pathologists have the opportunity to define h…
Pathologists Have Their ‘Carpe Diem’ Opportunity!
FOR MORE THAN TWO DECADES, leaders and forward-thinkers in the pathology profession bemoaned the fact that lab tests and anatomic pathology services were priced as commodities. From the podiums of various lab and healthcare conferences, they urged their peers to identify, document, and educate health…
Seismic Shift in Managed Care Contracting for Labs?
RECENTLY TWO OF THE NATION’S LARGEST HEALTH INSURERS abandoned a managed care contracting strategy that they adopted 11 years ago. Back in 2007, UnitedHealthcare and Aetna each were willing to grant exclusive national provider status to a single lab company in exc…
Coming Soon to a Doctor’s Office Near You!
IT’S TIME FOR ALL CLINICAL LABS AND ANATOMIC PATHOLOGY GROUPS to pay closer attention to the advances in genetic medicine and precision medicine. Events are moving even faster than most experts have predicted. As you will read on pages 3-4, two innovative health networks are on the verge of offeri…
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Builds Strong Lab Outreach Business
CEO SUMMARY: As health networks and hospitals consider outsourcing their lab outreach programs, the lab team at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (D-H) offers lessons about the value of retaining outreach. D-H is now in the eighth year of a sustained expansion of its laboratory outreach …
CURRENT ISSUE
Volume XXXII, No. 6 – April 21, 2025
Now that a federal judge has vacated the FDA’s LDT rule, The Dark Report analyzes the judgement and notes the various steps the FDA could take in response. Also, lab testing at pharmacies is proving to be less successful than was once anticipated.
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