Advice Handed Out For Physician

11/2/06

Medical laboratory professionals were urged to implement new treatment options and to embrace technological advances at a conference held at the Walt Disney World Resort in October.

One of the event’s speakers, Donna Sweet, MD, MACP of the University of Kansas School of Medicine Wichita, discussed the new Centers for Disease Control recommendations for HIV testing and encouraged physicians to comply. The CDC recommends that patients between the ages of 13 and 64 be offered a voluntary HIV test as part of routine medical care. Sweet commented that, if diagnosed early, HIV patients can expect to live 20 to 30 years longer.

David G. Rabbitts, MBA, MT (ASCP) of Medical Laboratory Solutions, advised laboratory professionals to integrate new technologies into their practices in order to reduce health care costs. He examined ways that labs can do so and still provide effective patient care such as using auto analyzers, electronic health records, probe testing, combining imaging and biochemistry and personalized medicine and theranostics. The change could reduce health care costs significantly, he said.