Newsbytes, 8/16
August 2016—Document-management systems worthwhile if you go extra mile; HHS releases guidance on ransomware attacks; McKesson alters IT business; Leica sample-tracking system added to Psyche products; Agilent buys iLab Solutions
Webinars and Sponsored Roundtables — Register Now
Tuesday, October 20, 2026, 11 AM-12 PM ET
Hear experts review the biological and clinical significance of the HER2 expression continuum in breast tissue, providing a clearer understanding of how these variations might impact diagnosis, and discuss the emerging importance of documenting HER2-low and HER2-ultralow categories using a validated IHC assay.
Webinar presenters Keith Wharton, MD, PhD, Global Medical Affairs Leader–Pathology, Roche Diagnostics Solutions, and Hannah Y. Wen, MD, PhD, Director, Breast Pathology Fellowship, Associate Team Leader, Breast Pathology Team, Attending Pathologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
CAP TODAY does not endorse any of the products or services named within. The webinar is made possible by a special educational grant from Roche.
Moderated by: Bob McGonnagle, Publisher, CAP TODAY
Thursday, October 29, 2026, 1 PM-2 PM ET
Hear an expert discuss the evolving role of PD-L1 testing in HNSCC and ovarian cancer.
Webinar presenter Georgios Deftereos, MD, Professor of Pathology, Associate Director of the Clinical Cancer Genomics Laboratory, Director of Molecular Cytopathology, University of California, San Francisco
CAP TODAY does not endorse any of the products or services named within. The webinar is made possible by a special educational grant from Agilent.
Moderated by: Bob McGonnagle, Publisher, CAP TODAY
Tuesday, November 3, 2026, 1 PM-2 PM ET
Hear an expert discuss the challenges of detecting NRG1 fusions and how RNA-based testing can support more comprehensive fusion identification in clinical practice.
Webinar presenter Benjamin Weinberg, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Attending Physician
specializing in gastrointestinal medical oncology
CAP TODAY does not endorse any of the products or services named within. The webinar is made possible by a special educational grant from Diaceutics.
Moderated by: Bob McGonnagle, Publisher, CAP TODAY
Monday, November 16, 2026, 12:30 PM-2 PM ET
Hear experts discuss a multidisciplinary approach to oncopathology for HER2
assessments for solid tumors in the absence of a companion diagnostic.
Webinar presenters Funda Meric-Bernstam, MD, Chair, Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics Medical Director, Institute for Personalized Cancer Therapy, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, and Emina E. Torlakovic, MD, PhD, College of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, Canadian Biomarker Quality Assurance, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, and Carol Cheung, MD, PhD, JD, FRCPC, Deputy Director, Canadian Biomarker Quality, Assurance—Programme canadien d’assurance de la qualité des biomarqueurs
CAP TODAY does not endorse any of the products or services named within. This program is being sponsored by Daiichi Sankyo, Inc. and AstraZeneca. The speaker is being compensated for the presentation. The program is not CME accredited and may not be used for CME accreditation.
Moderated by: Bob McGonnagle, Publisher, CAP TODAY
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2016 Issues
Put It on the Board, 8/16
August 2016—LabCorp will acquire Sequenom; New York ends state PT services; St. Jude lands CAP ISO 15189 accreditation; Epigenomics’ DNA test included in CRC guideline; OSU to deploy Inspirata digital pathology solution; Mindray’s clinical chemistry analyzer cleared; Successful Keytruda trial stopped early; Top court clarifies autopsy’s place in Texas law; EUA for Siemens Zika assay
For certain thyroid lesions, the shift is on
July 2016—Time was running out for Yuri Nikiforov, MD, PhD, vice chair for molecular pathology and division director of molecular and genomic pathology, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. For nearly a year he had been working to assemble an international group of experts—pathologists, endocrinologists, a surgeon, and, unusually, a psychiatrist and a patient advocate—to discuss that most vexing of thyroid tumors, encapsulated follicular variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma, or EFVPTC.
Laboratory 2.0: Changing the conversation
July 2016—Bundled payments, physician employment, and unconventional competitors are cannibalizing the volume-based business model that for decades has defined laboratory medicine. And labs have little room within their customary confines—the three percent of health system spending they directly account for—to play a central role in American medicine’s transformation.
Making the best of PD-L1 IHC testing
July 2016—When Keith Kerr, MB ChB, describes the ideal biomarker, he isn’t hesitant about what pathologists and clinicians need. “Ideally, the biomarker would always be correct. It would be easy and practical to measure. It would either be present or absent, with no gray zone or doubt.
In C. diff and cardiac care, lab steps up decision support
July 2016—What’s the one way to win friends and influence people? If you’re Eugenio H. Zabaleta, PhD, the answer is simple: Reduce the number of stool samples nurses have to collect. A few years ago, Dr. Zabaleta, clinical chemist at OhioHealth Mans-field Hospital, introduced a clinical testing algorithm for C. difficile that cut the number of stool samples by almost 50 percent. “And the nurses are loooving me for it,” he says happily. “The joke is, when nursing and lab work together, there is literally less crap for everybody.”
From the President’s Desk: Keeping your eye on the ball—and not
July 2016—I love to read and I like to watch a good baseball game. Sometimes I can actually use one to enhance the other. No, this is not leading to a discussion on Bull Durham and how life is defined by baseball or Field of Dreams and the logic of build it and they will come.
Shorts on Standards: Update on the frontier of NGS, 7/16
July 2016—Next-generation sequencing has continued to deliver on its promises and potential in the diagnostic arena. However, as with any emerging and evolving technology, the medical and scientific community faces the challenge of assessing the implications and demonstrating definitive clinical uses of its expanding capabilities, especially in the context of medical efficacy, clinical utility, and cost efficiency.
A rare case of Diamond Blackfan anemia: identifying the causative mutation using NGS
July 2016—Diamond Blackfan anemia is a rare, inherited bone marrow failure syndrome manifesting as marked red cell aplasia and variable congenital anomalies. We report here a case of Diamond Blackfan anemia, which underscores the role of an integrated diagnostic workflow including hematopathologic evaluation and next-generation sequencing for establishing the diagnosis and potential management of rare, inherited bone marrow failure syndromes.
Poisoning, overdose: Better technology, workflow improve patient odds
July 2016—As pronouncements by fictional detectives go, one of the most famous is Sherlock Holmes’ declaration to Dr. Watson: “When you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” Unfortunately, Holmes’ advice is no practical rule of thumb for solving the real-world mysteries of patient poisoning or overdose, because the possibilities are often so vast.