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Pathology group
A pathology group is an organization of clinical pathologists working on the diagnosis of disease based on laboratory analysis of bodily fluids such as blood and urine, as well as tissues, using the tools of chemistry, clinical microbiology, hematology and molecular pathology. Clinical pathologists work in close collaboration with medical technologists, hospital administrations, and referring physicians.
The business model of a pathology group has traditionally been as a private group practice, including solo practitioner, medical group partnership, professional corporation (PC), limited liability company (LLC), and similar professional business organizations. It is common for pathology groups to have contracts with one or more hospitals to provide anatomic pathology professional services and clinical pathology professional services.
Pathology itself is a significant component of the causal study of disease and a major field in modern medicine and diagnosis. The term pathology may be used broadly to refer to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of bioscience research fields and medical practices, or more narrowly to describe work within the contemporary medical field of “general pathology,” which includes a number of distinct but inter-related medical specialties which diagnose disease mostly through the analysis of tissue, cell, and body fluid samples.
Pathologists in hospital labs and pathology groups practice as consultant physicians, developing and applying knowledge of tissue and laboratory analyses to assist in the diagnosis and treatment of individual patients. As scientists, they use the tools of laboratory science in clinical studies, disease models, and other experimental systems, to advance the understanding and treatment of disease.
Clinical pathologists in a pathology group administer a number of visual and microscopic tests and an especially large variety of tests of the biophysical properties of tissue samples involving automated analyzers and cultures. Sometimes the general term “laboratory medicine specialist” is used to refer to those working in clinical pathology, including medical doctors, PhDs and doctors of pharmacology.
Immunopathology, the study of an organism’s immune response to infection, is sometimes considered to fall within the domain of clinical pathology.
Becoming a pathologist entails one of the lengthiest education and training tracks of all physicians. Requirements include four years of undergraduate study, plus four years of medical school, plus a minimum of four to five years of post-graduate training in pathology residency.
Growing Role for Digital Image Analysis in Pathology
CEO SUMMARY: For more than three years, pathologists at Washington University in St. Louis have worked with several different scanning products and digital pathology systems. Step-by-step, the Pathology Department has learned important lessons in how to capture digital images, ar…
Systems Approach For Pre-Authorization Of Genetic Tests
CEO Summary: Pre-authorization of expensive genetic and molecular tests is a threat to local clinical laboratories and pathology groups if payers exclude them from provider networks in favor of labs which bid the lowest prices. But one major healthcare corporation believes there …
Hospital-Owned Medical Groups Serving More Patients Per Doc
IT’S WIDELY KNOWN BY PATHOLOGISTS and laboratory administrators that hospitals and health systems are buying up private medical practices at an accelerating rate. This is a trend that favors hospital laboratory outreach programs, but may not be auspicious for the national laboratories. For this re…
Many Questions About FDA Regulation of LDTs
CEO SUMMARY: Ask most pathologists and laboratory administrators about the FDA’s intent to regulate laboratory-developed tests (LDTs), and they will likely answer that it is to control web-based direct-to-consumer lab testing companies and the rapidly- growing number of proprie…
Lab Industry Unprepared For FDA Action on LDTs
CEO SUMMARY: News stories about the FDA’s stated intention to regulate laboratory-developed tests (LDTs) generally play up the agency’s comments about the need to assert regulatory oversight of genetic tests and direct consumer access testing. But what has gone unremarked by …
Early Warning on LDTs and Pre-Authorization
ANY PATHOLOGIST OR LABORATORY MANAGER who considers this to be a quiet time in the laboratory testing industry is setting themselves up for a rude awakening in the not too distant future. Several stories in this issue are written specifically to call attention to major developments in the profession …
Labs Can Turn the Tables on the Payers
PRE-AUTHORIZATION OF GENETIC AND MOLECULAR TESTS is now on the radar screen of the nation’s larger health insurance companies. In most circumstances, payer pre-authorization requirements serve to exclude many smaller providers from access to patients. But local labs have a chance to guarantee their…
Payers Move to Pre-Authorize Expensive Genetic Tests
CEO Summary: Pre-authorization of expensive genetic and molecular tests is fast-becoming a priority for most of the nation’s health insurers. For clinical labs and pathology groups that don’t respond, this trend is a threat. On the other hand, because payers need all the skil…
Pathology Records Found At Massachusetts Dump
CEO SUMMARY: Pathologists at four Massachusetts hospitals got a powerful reminder recently that a breach of protected health information (PHI) can occur at any time for the most unexpected reason. Earlier this month, the Boston Globe reported that the pathology reports and patien…
HIEs Boost Fortunes of Community Hospital Labs
CEO SUMMARY: Regional health information exchanges (HIEs) are becoming more common. In Southern Indiana, the HealthLINC HIE is boosting the value that the community hospital laboratory provides to physicians. At the top of the list is expedited turnaround of laboratory test resul…
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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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