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Utilization Management Conference 2013

A Practical Approach for Pathology and Clinical Laboratory Test Utilization

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Date: October 8, 2013
Location: The Loews Hotel in Atlanta, GA

Learn how a clinician, laboratorian and pathologist can work together to build an effective test utilization strategy. Join us as we discuss how the laboratory can play an essential role in directing cost-effective and appropriate testing, especially during this time of decreasing reimbursement and demand for health care practice standardization. By the end of this event, you will have a clear insight on how to begin or advance the utilization management efforts in your laboratory.

Published on May 20, 2013 Learn more...

Hot Topics

The Region 4 Stork (R4S) Collaborative Project, Part 1: Laboratory Quality Improvement of Newborn Screening

Newborn screening has been very successful in identifying newborns with classic syndromes. However, many newborns have complex metabolic profiles that are difficult to interpret, leading to false-positives and missed diagnoses. To improve detection of true-positives, the Regional Genetics Collaborative project, funded by the Health Resource and Service Administration, has created the Region 4 Collaborative Stork project, which uses Mayo-developed software for postanalytical interpretation of complex metabolic profiles.

Part 1 introduces the concept of disease ranges for improved identification of abnormal newborn screening results.

A 6-part presentation by Piero Rinaldo, MD, PhD

Published on May 15, 2013View presentation...

Mycobacteria

3 Questions to Successfully Identify Mycobacteria and Guide Treatment

Identification and treatment of mycobacteria involve difficult, multistep processes. Mistakes in the handling of either aspect may result in unsuccessful treatment and an increased likelihood of drug resistance.

Successful identification and, ultimately, treatment of mycobacteria is guided by the answers to 3 essential questions.

Published on May 13, 2013 Learn more...

Hereditary Colon Cancer

Next Generation Sequencing Panel

Hereditary colon cancer screening can help identify presymptomatic or asymptomatic individuals within a family and allow clinicians to utilize early screening and monitoring options that optimize potential for early detection.

This panel uses next generation sequencing (NGS), array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH), and other technologies to evaluate for germline mutations in 17 genes known to be associated with an increased risk for colon cancer development.

Published on May 8, 2013 Learn more...

2013 Phlebotomy Conference

Registration Is Now Open

Phlebotomy 2013: Advancing the Profession and Practice of Phlebotomy
Dates: October 3-4, 2013
Location: The Kahler Grand Hotel in Rochester, MN
Topics include: Obtaining quality blood collections from venous lines, handling difficult sticks, trends in lead screening in children, and first-hand experiences utilizing central versus regionalized phlebotomy teams for hospital collections.

The conference balances breakout sessions geared towards specific areas of interest with large group dialogues on general topics, interactive case studies and a panel discussion.

Published on May 7, 2013 Learn more...

Hot Topics

Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia with t(15;17)(q24;q21); PML-RARA

Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) with t(15;17)(q24;q21); PML-RARA comprises 5% to 10% of all acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) cases. APL can often be differentiated from other types of AML based on bone marrow morphology, but the genetic aberration is diagnostic of APL regardless of blast percentage. Cytochemistry, flow cytometry, conventional cytogenetics and PML-RARA identification by RT-PCR and FISH are all important laboratory assays for the diagnosis of APL.

A presentation by Kaaren Reichard, MD

Published on May 1, 2013View presentation...