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Poisoning, overdose: Better technology, workflow improve patient odds

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Anne Paxton

July 2016—As pronouncements by fictional detectives go, one of the most famous is Sherlock Holmes’ declaration to Dr. Watson: “When you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

Unfortunately, Holmes’ advice is no practical rule of thumb for solving the real-world mysteries of patient poisoning or overdose, because the possibilities are often so vast. Some 2.3 million toxic exposures are reported annually and they may involve thousands of different agents—frequently more than one for an individual patient, says Kara Lynch, PhD, associate chief of the clinical chemistry and toxicology laboratory at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and associate professor at the University of California, San Francisco.

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