Community-based pathologists get a featured role on the Learning Channel’s Inside Health program. It will be aired Sunday, November 28 at 8:30 am EST. The Learning Channel used pathologists affiliated with Pathology Service Associates (PSA) to help create a segment on the role of pathology in healthcare. PSA plans to make a video of the pathology segment of the program available on its Web site, www.pathology-billing.com. The educational program will provide consumers with information about how pathologists help clinicians with diagnosis, prognosis, and monitoring a patient’s progress.
US LABS LISTED AS “FASTEST GROWING”
US LABS of Irvine, California is ranked 181 on Deloitt Technology’s “Fast 500.” US Labs, now with annual revenues of $75 million, has posted growth of 1,213% over the past five years. Besides revenue growth, what qualified US Labs for the ranking is its proprietary technology, such as the Virtual Flow™ Only flow cytology tool, as well as its ongoing investments into research and development.
OLD INKJET PRINTERS CAN MAKE HUMAN SKIN FOR BURN PATIENTS
Old Canon and Hewlett- Packard inkjet printers, with modifications, have been used by researchers to make sheets of human skin which can be used to treat burn patients. The modified printers spray cells onto a gauze scaffolding to create sheets of living tissue. The process starts with the same skin culturing techniques used in skin grafting. “Printing” the cells allows researchers to create a three-dimensional sheet of skin in less time than the cur- rent method that uses culturing techniques. Further, the “printed” skin can be engineered to have a protective layer that is more like real skin. This work is being done at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Clemson University, and the University of South Carolina.
ADD TO: “Skin Printing”
It was just 21 months ago, in the February 10, 2003 issue of THE DARK REPORT, that we first disclosed the use of inkjet printers to create complex living tissues. An estimated 9,000 burn patients per year could benefit from an improved source of skin grafts. It is still unknown whether such skin grafts will allow faster healing when used on burn patients, whether the grafts will grow on the body without much scarring, and whether the cells of these grafts might grow uncontrollably, creating a form of malignancy. For these and other reasons, researchers believe clinical applications of the inkjet “skin printing” technology is still several years from becoming a reality.
TRANSITIONS
• Joe Skrisson is the new CEO for Piedmont Medical Laboratory (PML) of Winchester, Virginia. This is a laboratory outreach program owned by eight hospitals in the Shenandoah Valley. Skrisson was formerly Director of Business Development at Beaumont Reference Laboratory in Royal Oak, Michigan.
