Tag Archives: Lab information systems and software

November 2023—Reports—integrated or otherwise—were up for discussion when CAP TODAY publisher Bob McGonnagle convened online in October a group of informatics experts, who spoke of the need for simplicity in a time of growing complexity, ease of access, where Epic isn’t strong. The full conversation follows.

April 2023—Another administrative layer and “up in the air” is how lab billing experts describe what the No Surprises Act requires of laboratories and where things stand. When they met online March 3 with CAP TODAY publisher Bob McGonnagle, they talked about this and digital pathology and the problems of no or slow payments. “Compared with five years ago, the number of denials has increased and turnaround time on full payment on a claim has lengthened significantly,” said Tom Scheanwald of APS Medical Billing.

February 2023—As this year’s guide to anatomic pathology computer systems was taking shape, CAP TODAY publisher Bob McGonnagle met online with representatives of five companies and with John Sinard, MD, PhD, of Yale University School of Medicine. They talked about the cloud, CPT codes, training of pathology informaticians, and artificial intelligence, for which the time frame in pathology is far longer than it’s been portrayed, in Dr. Sinard’s view. “It will start to impact the careers of some of our trainees, but it’s probably a 10- to 20-year time frame before it plays a major role,” he said. The view of Joe Nollar of Xifin: “Speculation that AI will someday replace pathologists is completely overblown,” though it will help to triage cases and mitigate risk. Their full conversation, which took place Dec. 20, 2022, follows.  

Nearly 800 registrants were at the Digital Pathology Association’s Pathology Visions meeting this fall, and 54 companies exhibited. “There was a great vibe at the meeting. People were mingling, collaborative. Digital pathology is picking up,” says DPA president Esther Abels. Her term as president will end this month and Liron Pantanowitz, MD, PhD, MHA, of the University of Michigan, will step in as president on Jan. 1.

November 2022—What labs want and need from their lab information systems and what the missing pieces are in interoperability are what pathologists and LIS company reps talked to CAP TODAY publisher Bob McGonnagle about when they met online Sept. 12. “The biggest challenge is with device integration” in molecular testing, said J. Mark Tuthill, MD, of Henry Ford Health System. “We have million-dollar instruments and we’re still programming runs manually. We don’t have HL7 order feeds. We don’t have the ability to get result feeds outbound from those devices.”

February 2022—Oracle’s purchase of Cerner, cloud computing, and integrated reporting were up for discussion when CAP TODAY publisher Bob McGonnagle convened a virtual roundtable Jan. 6 on anatomic pathology computer systems. Hematopathologist Monica E. de Baca, MD, said on the call she was encouraged by what she heard about integrated reporting from the AP LIS vendor reps on the call. But she said: “We should also be thinking about what is next; we don’t want to be talking about things 10 years after they were needed.” She and seven others answered McGonnagle’s questions, among them: Are the resources in pathology adequate to make progress toward and enable the necessary IT outcomes?

November 2021—At NorthShore University HealthSystem in suburban Chicago, a homegrown bioinformatics solution is the “secret sauce” that powers the health system’s personalized medicine program, says Kamalakar Gulukota, PhD, MBA, director of NorthShore’s Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology.