Tag Archives: Laboratory profiles

December 2023—The clinical laboratory at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia is solving two problems at once: its phlebotomist staffing shortage and the need for some in its community to learn a new skill and obtain employment.

September 2023—What happens when an oncologist cannot confidently determine what type of genetic test to order for their patient? Where can a provider turn if they do not know whether a genetic variant is clinically actionable? As genetic testing becomes a more integral part of personalized medicine and health care in general, there is a growing need to bridge the gap between those skilled in molecular diagnostics and those on the patient-facing side of care. In response to this need, the Center for Integrated Diagnostics (CID), a high-complexity molecular diagnostics laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital, created its Consultation Service.

February 2023—I was fortunate last summer to be part of a team established to build a histology laboratory in rural Ghana. Despite our many challenges, we succeeded in building a laboratory where specimens can now be processed for pathological interpretation. Although many obstacles remain, this laboratory offers great potential to improve the pathology services provided to a large portion of rural Ghana.

July 2018—Putting pharmacogenetic testing into play at Avera Health was years in the making. It took time to operationalize it at an affordable cost. Today, it has wide physician acceptance and is seen as a strong benefit for patients. “Pharmacogenetics is what will differentiate Avera in a new era of ACOs and personalized medicine, and will ultimately lead to a model for transforming health care,” says Trisha Lauterbach, MS, MLS(ASCP)CM, laboratory operations manager at Avera Institute for Human Genetics (AIHG), Sioux Falls, SD.

June 2018—“Form follows function” is a famous design principle, coined by an architect. But in the health care system and elsewhere, perfect matches between form and function are scarce.

March 2016—Try running a race and tying your shoes at the same time. That is the kind of challenge laboratories face when they endeavor to refine their processes while providing all the usual services clinicians and patients expect. When laboratory leaders at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston surveyed the landscape of their phlebotomy operations, they spotted many opportunities for improvement through Lean Kaizen events as well as technology that reduces the risk of human error.

July 2015—The last time Geisinger Medical Laboratories had a new facility, American women were still five years from getting the vote. Typhoid Mary had only recently ceased merrily showering her employers’ food with Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi. And the celebrity name on everyone’s lips was Charlie Chaplin. A view of the new laboratory building. “I think we have actually achieved the ideal in terms of efficiency,” says Dr. Schuerch (left), with Dr. Wilkerson.

September 2014—Medical practice is no stranger to good things coming from bad, but lest anyone be in doubt, Children’s Hospital and Medical Center in Omaha provides a striking example. The bad, in this case, was an exorbitant bill for genetic testing delivered several years ago to the parents of a sick child. The family had no idea such an expensive test had been ordered or that their insurance company would not pay for it.

July 2014—When Rosemary Frederick learned last year that her employer, North Shore-LIJ Health System of New York state, would be switching from the Roche Accu-Chek Inform I point-of-care glucose meter to the Inform II due to a maltose interference issue, she knew she and her colleagues were facing a heck of a lot of work.

July 2014—Hospitals are under fire to cut costs, and more often than not that means layoffs, forgoing new equipment, and watching from the sidelines as the medical literature touts advances that could help patients now—if only institutions could afford to implement them.

November 2013—When Richard J. Zarbo, MD, reflects on the strategy that helped his Detroit-based Henry Ford Health System achieve CAP accreditation to the ISO 15189 standard this summer, he likes to quote the system’s famously methodical founder: “Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.”