Article • Gold standard
Giant aims to inflate microbiology
At Europe’s largest meeting for clinical laboratories, Beckman Coulter stepped forward to welcome a new class of customers looking for familiar and reliable instruments. Report: John Brosky
Laboratory
Article • Data sharing
The LAW of the Lab
First they fixed the cables to hard-wire a faster data transfer from laboratory instruments. Now a coalition of the largest manufacturers of lab equipment for patient diagnostic tests have agreed on shared protocols for how software should report results. This is the first update to international standards in 20 years.
News • SCIEX QTRAP 6500 LC-MS/MS
System demonstrates sensitivity in method development
SCIEX announced today that Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark has invested in SCIEX QTRAP 6500 technology to develop novel mass spectrometry-based assays for clinical research laboratories. Scientists at the hospital’s Department of Clinical Biochemistry are using the QTRAP 6500 LC-MS/MS system for advanced clinical research, due to its exceptional sensitivity and selectivity, which are…
News • Bioreactor
Cancer treatment models get real
Researchers at Rice University and University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have developed a way to mimic the conditions under which cancer tumors grow in bones.
News • EKF Diagnostics at AACC
First fully integrated chemistry system
EKF Diagnostics, the global in vitro diagnostics company, announced the international launch of the Altair™ 240 clinical chemistry analyzer at the American Association for Clinical Chemistry’s (AACC) Annual Meeting and Clinical Lab Expo in Atlanta. This new bench-top platform represents EKF Diagnostics’ first fully integrated chemistry system designed for the global market. Also EKF…
News • Smart Platforms
Mindray: A solution for high efficient labs
Mindray is delighted to present you its latest innovations.
Article • Event
US-American clinical lab specialists meet today
Did you know that we offer around 1200 features on laboratory medicine? No? Then you might want to browse through our compilation of interesting articles on pathology, chemistry or management and many more.
News • Swiss Army Knife for Laboratories
Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry
During the past 15 years, liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) has evolved into a vital technology used to perform routine tests in many clinical laboratories. Historically, LC-MS/MS had been used primarily by research, pharmaceutical, or commercial laboratories; however, advances in the technology, decreasing costs for basic systems, intelligible software, an increased…
News • Aspergillus
ESCMID cautions that Europe is now a hotbed of global fungal resistance
ESCMID Fungal Infection Study Group (EFISG) argues that fungal resistance now represents a huge healthcare threat – with many cases remaining massively undiagnosed even in the developed world – and that there is a rising prevalence of the most invasive and deadly forms. Conversely, in the developing world we are seeing very treatable fungal infections killing huge numbers – half a million…
News • Quality Results
Need for patient-friendly reports in direct-to-consumer testing
Noting a paradigm shift among consumers who are seeking greater control over their own healthcare, AACC issued a position statement today on direct-to-consumer laboratory testing, which allows people to order medical tests directly from a lab without having to work with their healthcare provider. The statement emphasizes direct-to-consumer test results must be accurate and easily understood—an…
Article • Switzerland
Clinical chemistry is broad ranging
The field is neither tedious nor monotonous; it’s fascinating every day, Professor Katharina Rentsch emphasises, when explaining the need to attract students to this often overlooked but intreguing and varied discipline.
Sponsored • Hematology
Sysmex Corporation: The global leader in hematology
Founded in 1968, The Sysmex Corporation has challenged its way past far larger companies to become one of the leading healthcare companies around the world. How? By focusing constantly on one objective: maximising the strength of our people, knowledge and resourcefulness to live up to our mission statement: Shaping the Advancement of Healthcare.
Article • Quality Control
DGKL goes quality and standardisation
The DGKL publishes a Translation of the Quality Standards for Medical Laboratories of the German Chamber of Physicians (RiLiBÄK). Report: Prof. Dr. Michael Neumaier
Article • Politics
Antibiotic resistance is a threat to global health
Within 15 years effective antibiotics will run out and, far from being an apocalyptic fantasy, a world in which common infections and minor injuries can kill is a very real possibility for the 21st Century. Geoff Sussman, one of the world’s foremost wound experts has warned that antibiotic resistance is posing the biggest single threat to global health. Report: Mark Nicholls
Sponsored • Information Technology
Document Management - the hidden champion
Zenon's Doc-db is a full-fledged document management system which has been internationally available since 2006.
Sponsored • Quality Control
Designing an appropriate QC procedure
Quality Control (QC) is a vital process for laboratories to monitor the accuracy and precision of patient sample testing. Without QC, laboratory errors could go undetected, potentially resulting in misdiagnosis and inappropriate or delayed treatment, all of which could be life threatening for the patient.
Sponsored • Best Places to Work
A laboratory fit for a future decade
Fostering a collaborative way of working won the UK’s Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust recognition as an elite public sector healthcare employer, recently judged one of the top 100 ‘Best Places to Work’. The trust, led by chief executive Susan Acott, has created an energy-driven, patient-focused culture within the hospital, reflected by staff at all levels. This has been the driving force…
Sponsored • Workflow
Confidence in Hematology, Results with Beckman Coulter
Wallace Coulter, one of the founders of Beckman Coulter, was motivated by a belief that science should serve humanity. This was the inspiration behind the principle he invented that became the basis for all blood counting solutions. This same drive to keep the science of hematology moving forward is behind Beckman Coulter's new ©Automated Intelligent Morphology© (AIM), a multidimensional,…
Sponsored • Mass Spectrometry
Shimadzu LCMS-8060: The new family member
With its previous LCMS-8030, LCMS-8040 and LCMS-8050 triple-quadrupole systems, Shimadzu has set leading standards in terms of speed, sensitivity and functional design. With the introduction of the new LCMS-8060 (Figure 1), the success story of the LCMS-triple-quadrupole family reaches another milestone.
News • Research
Resolving a lymphatic riddle
For over one hundred years, scientists have debated the question of the origins of the lymphatic system – a parallel system to the blood vessels that serves as a conduit for everything from immune cells to fat molecules to cancer cells. This issue has now been resolved by Dr. Karina Yaniv of Weizmann Institute’s Biological Regulation Department. In a study reported in Nature, she and her team…
News • Developing Nations
Researchers turn bubble wrap into tiny test tubes
Inexpensive packing material pops up as an alternative to high-cost glass lab equipment for simple diagnostic tests, a potential boon in developing nations.
Article • POCT
Evolutionary POCT
A growing number of clinical tests are being delivered in community hospitals with more patients receiving quicker, accurate diagnoses closer to home, without stays in acute hospital beds. Professor Daniel Lasserson, an Associate Professor in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at Oxford University, shares the opinion that using point-of-caretesting (POCT) to facilitate high…
Sponsored • Digital 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 • Infection control
From alcohol to cancer detection
Clinical trials are under way at two NHS hospitals in England to assess breathalyser technology to detect lung cancer. Phase I clinical trials of a diagnostic breathalyser developed by Cambridge-based Owlstone Ltd have shown accurate identification of 12 lung cancer biomarkers in breath specimens. A Phase II trial is now targeting development of a small, handheld device that can be used in GP…
Sponsored • Bad blood
Haemolysis must be avoided
Blood sampling via intravenous catheters frequently occurs because patients in intensive care already have intravenous catheters in place, and patients admitted to accident and emergency units are immediately set up with intravenous catheters – providing easy access to blood.
