What a week for women's screening guidelines. After the major announcement that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force published new guidelines which recommended against routine mammography screening for women in their 40s, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) is now recommending women begin cervical cancer screening at ...

In addition to a plethora of sessions revealing the latest methods, techniques and findings in molecular pathology, the AMP conference is also a prime time for major industry players to release their latest-breaking news and product releases. Twelve corporate announcements were made at the conference this year; if you weren't there to experience ...

The Association for Molecular Pathology meeting--like the organization itself--is organized by its four major subdivisions: Genetics, Solid Tumors, Hematopathology and Infectious Diseases.  Friday featured the first two plenary sessions of the meeting. The genetics plenary session explored complex genetic disorders of childhood. Hakon ...

The recent meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America featured a study from the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit assessing a new strain of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The strain, called USA600, is associated with poorer outcomes than other strains of MRSA and is associated with vancomycin resistance—the drug ...

This week, the FDA issued another emergency use authorization (EUA), this time allowing Focus Diagnostics to market and offer its Simplexa™ Influenza A H1N1 (2009) test for use on the 3M™ Integrated Cycler from 3M to CLIA high-complexity laboratories for the duration of the recently-declared national emergency. For new viruses and in ...

This press release from the National Institutes of Health clarifies that while the current strain of H1N1 will predominate in the upcoming influenza season, there doesn’t seem to be biological pressure for the virus to re-combine with other circulating viruses. Some scientists have speculated such reassortant viruses would be more virulent or ...

[Guest entry from Amanda Koehler, associate editor of ADVANCE for Medical Laboratory Professionals] Many people say there is a strong correlation between science and art. One person who wholeheartedly agrees with this statement is Darlene Katz, an oil painter who started out as an immunologist.        ART ...

Drug resistance strikes again. U.S. health officials have detected Tamiflu-resistant cases of H1N1 along the U.S.-Mexico border. According to this AFP article, experts gathered in La Jolla, CA, at the Pan-American Health Organization office and warned that resistant strains were developing due to overuse of antivirals.   Healthcare ...

[Guest commentary by Cheryl McEvoy, from the ADVANCE for Health Information Professionals blog, ''ADVANCE Perspective: HIM''] Theory: healthcare is going the way of the fast food industry. A bit counter-intuitive, I know, given the usual wars between those factions over nutrition facts, whole grains and ''lighter'' meal options. But I'm talking ...

Challenges for the use an implementation of electronic health records (EHRs) are well documented, but this study in the journal Genetics in Medicine discusses another notable aspect—EHRs will need vast improvements to meet the needs of genetics and genomic medicine. The study notes that EHRs will need improved structure, standardization and ...