Two Positive Messages to Focus on at Year’s End

By R. Lewis Dark | From the Volume XXIX, No. 17 – December 12, 2022 Issue

Clinical laboratory managers and anatomic pathologists are winding down another tumultuous year for the healthcare industry. It was a year marked by unexpected twists and turns.  It was also a year marked by two positive developments for labs. First, the…

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‘Lab Workforce Crisis Takes Top Spot’–CAP Today

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXIX, No. 6 – April 25, 2022 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: Just weeks ago, CAP Today characterized the current crisis in staffing clinical laboratories as going “from simmer to rolling boil.” Demand for medical technologists and other certified laboratory scientists far exceeds the supply. Consequently, many labs now…

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Microbiome Startups Pushing into the Clinical Lab Space

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXIX, No. 2 – January 31, 2022 Issue

REPUTABLE CLINICAL LABORATORY COMPANIES HAVE A NEW COMPETITOR in what has been called the Wild West of microbiome startups.  Some of the companies in this nascent industry have been hailed for developing health breakthroughs while others have been indict…

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September 6, 2016 Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXIII No. 12 – September 6, 2016 Issue

During the widespread floods in Louisiana last month, Pathology Group of Louisiana (PGL) activated its disaster preparedness plan and managed to avoid any interruption of its pathology services. One vital element of that plan was a telephone tree that kept managers and staff in commu…

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Detroit Hospital Develops 10 Ways To Add More Value

By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXII No. 12 – August 24, 2015 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: Clinical labs are beginning to make the transition from a volume-based financial model to a model based on value-based payments. To survive this transition, labs must find ways to create value. The lab at Henry Ford Health System has  identified 10 ways that it c…

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Combining Lean Techniques with Lab Automation to Get Impressive Results

By Mary Van Doren | From the Volume XXII No. 10 – July 13, 2015 Issue

PROBABLY NO AREA OF CLINICAL LABORATORY MEDICINE is experiencing the dramatic transformation happening in microbiol…

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Combining Lean with Lab Automation to Get Impressive Results

By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXII No. 10 – July 13, 2015 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: By combining total lab automation with Lean techniques in a comprehensive makeover of its microbiology lab, one of the largest labs providing hospital acute care and community microbiology services in North America achieved major benefits. Benefits ranged from impro…

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June 30, 2014 “Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XXI No. 9 – June 30, 2014 Issue

Will microbiologists soon be testing a patient’s cellphone for clinical diagnostic purposes? Researchers at the University of Oregon recently conducted a study and determined that cellphones have a similar microbiome to the skin of the person who owns the device. The study determin…

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‘Game Changer’ Mass Spectrometry for Microbiology at UNC

By Joseph Burns | From the Volume XXI No. 8 – June 9, 2014 Issue

CEO SUMMARY: Microbiologists at the University of North Carolina are using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry to slash the time to answer and significantly cut lab costs. Their goals are to improve patient outcomes and reduce average length of stay. In a one-year study presented last month, UNC …

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December 23, 2013 “Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”

By Robert Michel | From the Volume XX, No. 17 – December 23, 2013 Issue

Saudi Arabia is the second country to embark on the goal of sequencing 100,000 human genomes. Earlier this month, the Saudi Human Genome Program was announced. Funding for the program, expected to take five years, will be provided by the Saudi Arabian national science agency. The fir…

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