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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.
Pathologists Can Still Earn Medicare PQRI Incentives
CEO SUMMARY: During 2010, the Medicare Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) will pay a 2% bonus to pathologists who register and report data on 80% of their cases for the specified CPT codes. However, independent pathology laboratories still cannot participate in the PQR…
Letter to Editor on EMR Donations, Deeply-Discounted Client Prices
Dear Editor: Because THE DARK REPORT is willing to tackle tough issues regarding the business end of the pathology profession, I am writing to call attention to a serious situation. What follows is presented as mostly factual and minimally perceptive. While I have no fe…
EMR Donations, Client Bill Issues in Anatomic Path
CEO SUMMARY: In today’s market for anatomic pathology services, local pathology practices are facing tough competition from national pathology companies that are quite aggressive at using EHR donations and discounted client bill arrangements to win new clients. Attorney Jane Pi…
May 10, 2010 “Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”
Just four years since its founding in June, 2006, Aurora Diagnostics, Inc., of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, is preparing to go public. On April 30, the company filed stock registration documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an IPO (initial pu…
Is Lab Industry Ready for Facebook and MySpace?
WHO COULD HAVE IMAGINED, JUST A FEW YEARS AGO, that social networking sites such as Facebook.com, MySpace.com, and YouTube.com would become a useful platform that allows clinical laboratories, pathology groups, and in vitro diagnostics (IVD) companie…
ISO 15189 Accreditation Requires Specific Steps For Global Recognition
CEO SUMMARY: This intelligence briefing is the third in an ongoing series about quality management systems (QMS) and their role in advancing the performance of clinical laboratories and improving the quality of the testing services they provide. ISO 15189 is a set of standards for medical…
April 19, 2010 “Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”
Laboratory testing in India continues to attract the attention and investment dollars of western companies. News reports indicate that Apax Partners is negotiating to buy a stake in Metropolis Healthcare of Mumbai, India. Metropolis Healthcare has business activities…
2.3% Medical Device Tax Hits Clinical Labs in 2013
CEO SUMMARY: One aspect of the massive new health bill is that medical device companies will pay a 2.3% tax, effective January 1, 2013. Students of economics know that it is customers who invariably end up paying such direct taxes. Thus, clinical laboratories in the United States should p…
Business Advantages From Whole Slide Imaging
CEO SUMMARY: Whole slide imaging (WSI) is a niche product today, but it offers the potential to redefine the practice of pathology. That’s the opinion of pathologists presenting at a digital pathology workshop last month. One pathologist explained how WSI significantly improves collabor…
Baylor Pathologists Form Lab with US Oncology
CEO SUMMARY: In Dallas, Pathologists Bio-Medical Laboratories is part of a new laboratory partnership that includes Baylor Health Care System, Texas Oncology, and US Oncology. The four partners ponied up a total of $40 million in cash and debt to build a state-of-the art laboratory in a 1…
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Volume XXXII, No. 6 – April 21, 2025
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