Pathology

Take the next step in Digital Pathology

Digitizing pathology is not just a transformation of technology, the major change and benefits lies in the change to a more efficient workflow – enabled by the new technology.

Article • UTI pathogen

Boosting the Body’s Natural Ability to Fight Urinary Tract Infections

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are common, and widespread antibiotic resistance has led to urgent calls for new ways to combat them. Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences report that an experimental drug that stabilizes a protein called HIF-1alpha protects human bladder cells and mice against a major UTI…

News • Microbiology

ESCMID launches study groups for forensic and veterinary microbiology

The ESCMID Study Group for Forensic and Postmortem Microbiology will create a new network of microbiologists, virologists, anthropologists and archaeologists working in the field of forensic medicine. Professor Amparo Fernandez-Rodriguez, from the National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences, Madrid, is the head of ESGFOR and stresses the importance of this group in facilitating…

Article • Cancer diagnostics I

Ambiguity calls for a second opinion

Each year, approximately 1.6 million women in the USA have breast biopsies to diagnose or rule out cancer. Pathological diagnosis is considered the gold standard – how accurate are these diagnoses? Report: Cynthia E. Keen

Article • Human resources

A pathology workforce fit for the future

The UK pathology sector faces numerous challenges as it strives to create a future medical laboratory workforce. As in many divisions of the National Health Service (NHS), this area has an ageing population yet must evolve against a backdrop of fast-developing technologies, emerging science, financial constraints and the challenge of working in tandem with the private sector. Report: Mark…

Made to measure laboratories

In 1995 Claudia and Robert Karl risked self-employment in a sector already dominated by experts. Those manufacturers, however, sold standardised products. The Karls, with backing from a stainless steel producer, decided to produce tailor-made solutions to fit customers’ needs. To that end they attended international medical equipment exhibitions from Dubai through to Malaysia. Today, Claudia…

Article • Norms & standards

IT communication fosters unified standards

Looking back, the founding fathers of laboratory medicine were doctors who carried out the historic medical practice of uroscopy in the Middle Ages, explains Professor Klaus Kohse MD, Director of the Institute for Laboratory Medicine in Oldenburg Clinical Centre at Oldenburg University Medical Faculty. Report: Walter Depner

Article • Neuro Imaging

Molecular imaging brings seismic change

Molecular profiling is transforming brain cancer management and radiologists must get to grips with the upcoming paradigm that will affect the way they report findings. Renowned neuroradiologist Professor Anne G. Osborn from the University of Utah, School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, unveiled the latest advances in brain pathology during the Nikola Tesla Honorary Lecture last week at ECR…

Article • Digital pathology

Biopsy results

Gideon Ho, CEO and co-founder of Singapore-based HistoIndex is confident: ‘After a biopsy a patient waits in a hospital bed, but now, instead of waiting a couple days until doctors know how to treat this patient, we can deliver results while the patient is still in the hospital.’ Report: John Brosky

Article • Study

Surveying discrepancies

A limited survey of patients who died soon after being discharged from hospital found that almost a quarter had an undiagnosed co-morbidity with a potentially avoidable cause of death. Report: Frank Swain

LEAN Management

‘Why should something that works for the automotive industry not also facilitate leaner processes in pathology?’ Walter Depner decided to look at The Institute of Pathology in Bern, Switzerland, where the concept was tested for three years.

More visibility for pathologists

For several decades pathologists worldwide have been under increasing pressure to handle a steady increase in laboratory tests with a steady decrease in finance and staff.

CLICK – and tumour growth is known in seconds

Some years ago telepathology – a complex but well developed procedure where histology specimens are photographed using a camera mounted on a microscope and transmitted – was thought to be the wave of the future.

New trends in Pathology Informatics

For several decades, pathologists worldwide have been under increasing pressure to handle a steady increase in laboratory tests with a steady decrease in the amount of financial and staff resources. Add to this the escalating volume of increasingly complex, sophisticated testing and the importance of pathology informatics is evident.

Danes take pathology software worldwide

Having convinced medical labs across Denmark that its suite of image analysis software can provide a solution to the crushing burden of in vitro diagnostics (IVD), VisioPharm is offering it to pathologists worldwide

Sectra brings PACS power to pathology

"I can count on my fingers the number of pathologists who work full digitally," said Elin Kindberg who is leading the development of a pathology PACS for Sectra Imaging IT Solutions. Conventional light microscopes continued to be standard tool for examining histo-pathology slides.

Validating imaging biomarkers

New imaging biomarkers are helping radiology to play a greater role in new drug developments.

Virtual anatomy

In 2007, Sara Doll (Institute for Anatomy and Cell Biology, Heidelberg University) and Dr Frederik Giesel (Managing Senior Physician, Radiology Clinic, Department of Nuclear Medicine at Heidelberg University Hospital) initiated the development of virtual anatomy for a seminar aimed at students in the pre-clinical phase of their medical degree course.

Point-of-care-testing in emergency departments

Over the past 10 years the use of point-of-care testing (POCT) in in European and North American hospitals has steadily increased, stimulated by the objectives of accelerating diagnostic treatment, increasing efficiency and improving patient outcomes, Cynthia E. Keen reports

Too many tumour boards?

Multidisciplinary tumour boards (MDTs) are widespread in the Netherlands, and ‘they tend to be proliferating lately,’ according to Professor Folkert van Kemenade, Chair of the Pathology department at the VU University Medical Centre in Amsterdam.

Large-Scale Switch to Digital Pathology Systems

Evolving technologies and market forces reveal that digital pathology is poised to radically affect the daily workflow and activities of pathologists and diagnostic laboratories

Barco and Ventana offer digital pathology imaging platform

Healthcare imaging expert Barco has signed a worldwide agreement with Ventana Medical Systems, Inc., a member of the Roche Group, to provide its leading diagnostic and clinical review display systems for use with the Ventana Virtuoso image and workflow management system, offering a best-in-class, turnkey image viewing solution.

Digital pathology

Although evolving as a tool in medical pathology for years, several factors have hampered its widespread use in this field. Now, a Scientific American article asserts that the time has come for a digital imaging revolution.

UK labs face changes and challenges from new healthcare legislation

Aspects of new healthcare legislation are causing concern among medical laboratory experts in the United Kingdom – including the lack of future funding for innovation and development under a new reimbursement model, little appetite to quantify the cost effectiveness of laboratory testing, reduced staffing and a shift in emphasis that will see the need to make profit over-ride initiative and…

Swine flu spreads

Swine flu has been confirmed in a number of countries and it is spreading from human to human, which could lead to what is referred to as a pandemic flu outbreak. Pandemic flu is different from ordinary flu because it's a new flu virus that appears in humans and spreads very quickly from person to person worldwide. On Wednesday, the World Health Organization raised the pandemic threat Level to 5…