CAP TODAY Pathology/Laboratory Medicine/Laboratory Management
September 2014—The promises and perils of big data and mobile health were among the hot topics at this year’s meeting of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry. Nearly 20,000 laboratory professionals poured into Chicago’s McCormick Place for the AACC expo, which featured more than 650 exhibitors as well as hundreds of scientific sessions and abstracts. AACC said the meeting ranks as one of the 10 largest medical exhibitions in the United States.
Digital health and genomics guru Eric J. Topol, MD, author of 2012’s The Creative Destruction of Medicine: How the Digital Revolution Will Create Better Health Care, gave a plenary talk on the power that mobile computing can bring to diagnostics. Several exhibitors touted so-called lab-on-a-chip technology in smartphones to help diagnose thyroid disorders, infectious diseases, HIV, and more. Making sense of all the information rolling in was the focus of “Understanding Big Data and Its Impact on Your Laboratory,” a talk given by Viktor Mayer-Schönberger from the United Kingdom’s Oxford Internet Institute. The 2015 meeting will take place July 26–30 in Atlanta.