Health care is on everyone’s mind lately, and those who work in the health care industry could find themselves overwhelmed by the myriad issues. What will be done about the rising costs of health care and prescription drugs, and how will it affect clinical labs? What can be done to improve patient and health care worker safety? What impact will the labor shortage have on the quality of services in the clinical lab? And how does one keep up with all of the technological developments in this industry?
The good news is that there is no lack of resources for laboratory professionals. This month, the Clinical Laboratory Management Association and the American Society of Clinical Pathologists will hold their annual conference and exhibition in Atlanta. The March 27—30 event is designed for health care professionals working in all levels of the clinical laboratory. Topics to be addressed include risk management, reimbursement, laboratory personnel requirements, how genomic disease management is revolutionizing medicine, and the advantages of a marketing plan that targets specific tests and/or specialties. CLP will have a booth at the show and I’m looking forward to meeting many of you there. Please make it a point to stop by.
Next month the Executive War College event will be held April 27—29 in New Orleans. I was told at the first trade show that I attended as editor of CLP that these educational events produced by The Dark Report always include lively discussions in smaller settings. The last day of the War College will be devoted to current applications in molecular diagnostics.
And of course, we at CLP continue to provide you with the information you need to keep up-to-date on the latest developments and economic strategies in the clinical lab industry. This month, we detail new products for hematology and safety in our Technology Focus(page 44), and our Industry Overview looks at the viability of physician’s office labs (page 32).
In addition, since the heart is the focus of our Disease Management feature this month, we decided to find out more about aortic dissection, the condition that took the life of actor John Ritter. Last September, I was on my way to a diagnostics company in San Diego when I caught the end of a news report on singer Johnny Cash and Ritter. I guessed that Johnny Cash had died since he had been ill for a long time and I assumed that 54-year-old Ritter was battling some kind of illness. Therefore, it was a shock to me when the person I was meeting told me that John Ritter had died from a rare heart ailment. She went on to say that companies such as hers needed to take a proactive stance in developing more diagnostic markers for disease detection. Check out Nicholas Borgert’s article on aortic dissection on page 30.
Finally, in keeping with our plan to offer you more information on running cost-efficient labs, we provide a look at Bio-Rad’s quality control software system, which is designed to eliminate costly errors. Our Lab Economics feature begins on page 40.
It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the issues and to get caught up in the day-to-day of just getting your job done. But there is help out there at industry events and in the pages of CLP. Take advantage!
Carol Andrews
Editor
[email protected]
