Tag Archives: Referrals

July 2017—Inappropriate referrals to rheumatologists and months-long wait times led pathologists to start a service at Harris Health in Houston of consultative-algorithmic workups for rheumatologic disease. “Everyone liked it. Rheumatologists were happy to get patients they could treat and who were already worked up,” Robert L. Hunter, MD, PhD, says of the service that gave primary care providers the option of selecting algorithmic testing with pathologist consultation rather than order individual tests when signs and symptoms suggested rheumatologic disease.

July 2017—Ten weeks in, 10 patients seen. The pathology patient consult program at Lowell General Hospital is already giving a boost to pathology’s visibility and patients a better understanding of their disease. Lija Joseph, MD, chief of pathology and medical director of pathology and laboratory medicine at Lowell General Hospital in Lowell, Mass., says a colleague’s presentation about social media and medicine led her to launch the patient pathology consult program in March.