We've discussed dark matter before. Understanding the unobserved and unknown areas of the human genome could ultimately lead to a better understanding of cancer and, subsequently, better treatment options. A ...

In microbiology we learn to use the Gram stain results of a direct smear to check specimen quality (usually by a count of squamous epithelial cells) and any predominating organisms (e.g. lancet shaped Gram positive cocci on a sputum) that suggest what to work up.

All good micro techs use the Gram stain. Intracellular organisms are an immediate clue of what's causing an infection. If an organism is seen ...

The more we learn about our own bodies, the more it seems like there's just an endless war going on in there. Scientists have long since known about helpful bacteria inside of our bodies that help prevent infections, but an article from Medical News Today cited a US study from researchers at San Diego State University that noted ...

Risk and risk management have been constantly on my mind as I started to familiarize myself with CMS' new quality control policy also known as the Individualized Quality Control ...

The AACC is urging laboratory professionals to contact their members of Congress and request that they support H.R.1248, the Newborn Screening Saves Lives Reauthorization Act, which would preserve recent advances in state newborn screening programs. Earlier legislation contributed to a dramatic expansion in newborn screening for treatable core conditions, according to an AACC release. In 2007, only 10 states ...

According to one Fox affiliate contributor, Ben and Jerry's has a special nap room for employees. If you get too tuckered making Chunkey Monkey, you can bag a few zees. The National Sleep Foundation reports that sixteen percent of employers have similar napping rooms. One sleep expert comments, "Just ...

QuiqMeds, a Pennsylvania-based company located outside of Philadelphia, deals in a very different type of vending machine. With 6 machines located in local physician's offices in the area and plans to increase that number in the region before expanding outside of Pennsylvania to other states that allow prescription drugs to be provided by physicians directly, the company stands to change the practice ...

"Dark matter" sounds like something George Lucas would tell us is at the heart of the empire. In reality, it's the parts of the human genome that science has yet to identify -- which still sounds like it belongs in a sci-fi movie, but the discovery could provide researchers with a new type of specimen ...

Repetitive motion injuries are commonly caused by cumulative trauma to musculoskeletal joints such as thumbs, elbows, and shoulders. These have always been common in workplaces but there is greater awareness during these long days of people sitting at computer terminals. Hours of restrictive movement using the same muscles that involve fine motor control e.g. mouse clicking and keyboard typing can cause ...

There's a scene in the 60s-era AMC series "Mad Men" that involves a pregnant woman smoking and drinking while her friend's child runs around with a dry cleaning bag over her head. All of this happens in the space of about a minute, and there are so many things done wrong during that time that, by today's standards, you can't help but wonder how anyone even managed to survive the 1960s unscathed. ...

When we renovated our lab design, moving walls, equipment, and refrigerators, one of the techs joked the newly opened space made it "walker ready." "We aren't getting any younger," she said. That seems to be a theme these days. I'm not sure we'll be working with walkers -- I hope not -- but ergonomics and exhaustion seem to bedevil us at every turn.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration ...

ADVANCE Discourse: Lab

Knowing

Let's forget about money for a second. I know that can be difficult - what, with all of those pesky adult responsibilities and everything, but bare with me.  If money wasn't an object, and your physician wanted to order a test that you knew wouldn't be covered under your insurance, ...

My friend Martha is 60 years old. She had been with her company for years in various roles from manager to director and finally COO. This past year she had some challenges related to her health, her mom died and she got divorced after almost 40 years of marriage. She was coasting towards retirement and looking forward to being able to travel and spend time with her grand kids.

A few weeks ago she was let go ...

Pardon the pun, but it's an old story. According to the Hospital Council of Northern & Central California, "The average age of a CLS in California is above 50. There are not enough new CLSs in the pipeline to equal the numbers currently working but planning to retire," which says it all. We are all getting ...

The rise of personalized treatment has healthcare professionals completely rethinking the way they treat cancer. At the molecular level, each is different and should be treated accordingly, but similarities shouldn't be ignored either. A study from the Cancer genome Atlas (TCGA) Research Network on endometrial tumors divided the cancer types into for groups, and examined how we can treat specific ...

Imagine a healthcare facility where a small sample of blood is taken as you walk in the door, just .25 attomoles -- you'd barely notice. They drop your sample into a small, handheld device and, by the time your physician has come to see you, they are ready to tell you if they would like further testing for diseases like Alzheimer's or cancer based on the early-detection results from their handheld ...

It's easy to make solutions more complicated. When there are holes in a schedule, one can create multiple rotation lists with conditional rules. When quality control is out, one can apply more Westgard rules than are needed. And when microscopic cellular elements are evaluated, one can apply criteria that are too detailed to be practical.

Laboratory professionals are a pragmatic and dogmatic lot, generally, ...

With genetic research has come the realization that cancers are unique -- not just in terms of where they are in the body, but in their molecular make up. Although the industry is focusing on personalized medicine as a treatment option recently, some researchers can't help but wonder about the prospect of a universal treatment, a drug to fight multiple ...

Corrective action is a beautiful thing. When quality control is out of limits, running a fresh control that is acceptable saves time, avoids an irritating sample look back, and reassures the tech. When a weak blood bank reaction in all tubes disappears by recollecting a sample and letting it clot in the refrigerator, a simple fix is found. And when an instrument problem is identified and repaired before a service ...

One cannot help but marvel when looking back at the history of communication and seeing how far we have come! Remember smoke signals? Certainly one of the first forms of long distance communication, used way before the telegraph, telephone and the internet were invented. Wasn't it a few years ago we were using smoke shaped clouds to alert people to danger or communicate joy? All joking aside, there is no question ...

During a hospital visit, a doctor will often ask about pain, but how can it be better calculated beyond just words? A story from NPR followed researchers led by Tor Wager, PhD, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience from the University of Colorado at Boulder, who found a way ...

It is that time of year when we celebrate National  Medical Laboratory Professionals Week (NMLPW).  This is a week when the various, often competing, laboratory organizations join forces  to honor the more than 300,000 medical laboratory professionals around the country who perform and interpret more than 10 billion laboratory tests annually. As stated in this year's slogan, whenever ...

A million monkeys on a million microscopes probably couldn't bang out an accurate WBC differential in a million years, but a lab tech could teach a gibbon to run a chemistry analyzer in about ten minutes.

I'm kidding. But the subjective variability of microscopic analysis versus objective reliability of engineered automation is known. WBC differential, abnormal cell identification, manual cell ...

The idea of making a potentially dangerous drug less prone to abuse is something that stands out in the effort to stop prescription drug misuse in the United States. Many companies have incorporated time release capsules to curb the possibility of abuse, but sometimes that just isn't enough. According to a recent New York Times ...