Courtesy of Dark Daily:

Pathologists would gain new tool to diagnose cancer faster and more accurately, based upon stain-free analysis of tissue

Reading tissue biopsies with a new stain-free method could eventually help pathologists achieve faster and less subjective cancer detection. Should this technology prove viable, it would also displace many of the longstanding tissue preparation methodologies used today in the histopathology laboratory.

Credit a research team from the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois (UI) Christie Clinic and at the UI campuses in Urbana and Chicago, with developing this new technology.

They call the technique Spatial Light Interference Microscopy (SLIM). According to a story reported by Futurity.org, the technique uses two beams of light.

Read more: New Way to Look at Tissue Biopsies: Beckman Institute Researchers Develop Low Cost, High-Speed and Stain-free Optical Technology That Could Displace Existing Histopathology Methodologies | Dark Daily http://www.darkdaily.com/new-way-to-look-at-tissue-biopsies-beckman-institute-researchers-develop-low-cost-high-speed-and-stain-free-optical-technology-that-could-displace-existing-histopathology-methodologies-030912#ixzz1oe3Q3qhG

The real question here is what is the value of these archives?  What condition are the blocks and tissue in with what I suspect has been suboptimal storage conditions for decades for minable RNA.  There may be some potential but add to the poor quality of the preserved tissue is the issue of likely scant clinical documentation, minimal or no long term follow up information and lack of longitudinal data short of a few registries.

By Patricia Kime - Staff writer Army Times

SILVER SPRING, Md. — Like the vast government warehouse in the closing scene of “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” the 32,000-square-foot repository at the Joint Pathology Center holds thousands of treasures — cardboard boxes stacked floor to ceiling on shelves, containing 32 million tissue samples from ill and injured service members dating to 1917.

That trove of medical detritus could soon be accessible to federal and civilian researchers.

Officials at the Joint Pathology Center, the Pentagon’s main laboratory, research facility and learning institute for pathology, said Tuesday they are working with the Institute of Medicine to determine how to open their tissue repository — the largest in the world — to some scientists.

Considered a national treasurer by researchers, the catalogue of samples holds clues that could lead to medical advancements, said JPC Interim Director Col. Thomas Baker.

“Twenty to 25 years ago, there probably wasn’t a lot of use for this tissue,” Baker said. “But now with molecular studies we can do now, the genoming sequencing … it will allow us to test these samples that will ultimately affect treatment and patient care.”

The paraffin-encased samples include bits and bobs from service members who breathed mustard gas in World War I, contracted the Spanish Flu in 1918, were exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam and encountered depleted uranium in the sands of Iraq.

There are samples from troops who contracted extremely rare diseases as well as thousands of common diseases — specimens Baker feels should be made available to researchers of other federal agencies if not academia.

“There’s a lot of potential,” he said.

A panel from the Institute of Medicine, the arm of the National Academies that makes recommendations to the federal government on science and health matters, is reviewing the pathology center’s policies and procedures to determine who should have access to the material, how the samples should be used and tested and the ethical considerations of granting access to patients’ biopsies and surgical jetsam.

The report should be out in June, Baker said.

The Joint Pathology Center was created by the 2008 Defense Authorization Act to replace the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, shuttered as a result of the 2005 round of base closures and realignments.

AFIP was housed on the grounds of Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.; the JPC is located in Silver Spring. Md., near the soon-to-be-opened National Museum of Health and Medicine and the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.

JPC has an annual operating budget of about $21.7 million, beyond funding from hospitals and the Defense Department’s Centers of Excellence. Its 36 pathologists and 46 support staff provide pathology consultations for military and Veterans Affairs Department health facilities and military veterinary clinics, as well as electron microscope services and pathology education and research.

Courtesy of The 1x Objective.  Word cloud of pathologist brain/pathology reports.

For the past several months have reviewed 100s if not thousands of pathology reports for various purposes, research, education, clinical, LIS configuration, etc... Have to agree with Karl on this.  Outside of "carcinoma" (this likely includes terms such as "negative for carcinoma", cell(s), tumor, words such as "may", "typically" and "case often" are commonly used terms on the very product we produce - a report. 

These vagaries are often very commonly seen and used without reproach and may be seen in many cases in textbooks of cytology, such as statements that begin with "The cells may show features of overall cellular enlargement or be of relatively normal size or mildly enlarged; nuclei may show hyperchromasia or appear normal; nucleoli may or may not be seen".  

Good thing pathology and its accompanying reports are so clear, transparent, direct, easy to quantify and without qualifiers or adverbs...

Dr. Tom Wheeler over at his Medscape blog entitled Lab Line by the Doctor's Doctor has a great note on tumor boards.  The paragraph below pretty much says it all. It is tumor board, not tumor bored and pathologists need to be more of an integral part of these meetings than what I have seen as typical pathologists' roles and reactions to these conferences.

"A number of pathologists that I know view these conferences as a burden and an interruption of their regular work by an activity that is not reimbursed, not to mention the frustration of having cases added at the last minute making it difficult to put together an orderly presentation within time for the meeting.  My view is somewhat different - this is not an interruption of your work it is your work."

Read more.

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If you consider a million physicians sending patient samples to a quarter million laboratories, and larger hospitals and health systems having multiple laboratories, clinics, and hospitals, as well as from patient service centers (PSCs) to laboratories, it’s easy to understand just how vital the medical courier system is to the healthcare system in general and the clinical laboratory industry specifically.

If you envision the travel of patient specimens as a very complicated web of time and condition-dependent medical samples in constant motion, then the challenges, both technical and economic, become obvious.  Here are some common questions…

How do you track samples?  How are samples handled?  How do you keep costs down?  How do you operate an efficient courier system if, on any given day, you don’t know the number and types of samples that will be transported?

The Dark Report is happy to offer our readers a chance to download our recently published FREE White Paper “The Future of Clinical Laboratory Courier Services: Technical and Economic Solutions for the Medical Courier Business” at absolutely no charge. This report will address these issues above, provide solutions, and include case studies that show how it is currently being handled.

 

GAITHERSBURG, MD and WESTWOOD, MA, Mar 06, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- AccelPath, LLC ("AccelPath" or the "Company"), a wholly-owned and operating subsidiary of Technest Holdings, Inc., conducts ongoing discussions with several scanner manufacturers.

AccelPath is in discussions with several slide scanner manufacturers to provide their equipment to clinics and hospitals. Scanner deployments will allow the Company to further digitize all aspects of pathology services, allowing advancement of its strategy of providing efficient, timely, fully automated, digital pathology services using existing electronic information technologies. AccelPath will also utilize these relationships to further advance clinics and hospitals with worksite planning, technical services (including software interfaces and scanner operations), network engineering, professional pathology services and post implementation support.

"We are excited about the significant progress being made toward implementation of digital pathology. This would complete a fully digital loop between treating physician and trained pathologist," said Shekhar Wadekar, the Company's Chief Executive Officer. "We are gaining customer acceptance of our workflow solution and this will increase customer awareness and confidence in the Company's product offerings."

About AccelPath AccelPath provides technology solutions that play a key role in delivering information required for diagnosis of diseases and other pathologic conditions with and through its associated institutional pathologists. The medical institutions, with whom the Company partners, prepare comprehensive diagnostic reports of a patient's condition and consult with referring physicians to help determine the most appropriate treatment. Such diagnostic reports enable the early detection of disease, allowing referring physicians to make informed and timely treatment decisions that improve their patients' health in a cost-effective manner. The Company seeks out referring physicians and histology laboratories in need of high-quality pathology interpretations and manages HIPAA-compliant digital case delivery and reporting while developing comprehensive solutions for managing medical information.

AccelPath is currently focused on the $14 billion anatomic pathology market in the US. The Company's business model builds upon the expertise of experienced pathologists to provide seamless, reliable and comprehensive pathology and special test offerings to referring physicians using conventional and digital technologies. The Company establishes longstanding relationships with the referring physicians as a result of focused delivery of its partner's diagnostic services, personalized responses and frequent consultations, and its proprietary flexible information technology, or IT, solutions that are customizable to the referring physicians or laboratories as well as the pathologists' needs. Such diagnostic reports often enable the early detection of disease, allowing referring physicians to make informed and timely treatment decisions that improve their patients' health in a cost-effective manner. AccelPath's IT and communications platform enables it to efficiently and securely deliver diagnostic reports to referring physicians. In addition, AccelPath's IT platform enables close tracking and monitoring of medical statistics.

Technest focuses on the design, research, development and integration of three-dimensional imaging devices and systems primarily in the healthcare industries. The Company also develops solutions and intelligent surveillance devices and systems, as well as three-dimensional facial recognition systems for security and law enforcement agencies. Historically, the Company's largest customers have been the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense. The Company's solutions leverage several core proprietary technology platforms, including 3D imaging technologies.

Additional Company information may be found on the Internet at:

http://www.accelpath.com

Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements" relating to the business of the Company, which can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may," "will," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "estimate," "believe," "project," "continue," "plan," "forecast," or other similar words, or the negative thereof, unless the context requires otherwise. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements about the Company's current discussions with scanner manufacturers, the Company's expected future performance and the acceptance of the Company's product offerings. The results anticipated by any or all of these forward-looking statements may not occur. In addition, these statements reflect management's current views with respect to future events and are subject to numerous risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in or implied by these forward-looking statements. Factors that could affect those results include, but are not limited to, our ability to conclude our discussions with these manufacturers on favorable terms, the acceptance of our solutions in the marketplace, the efforts of our sales force, general economic conditions, and those described in the Company's reports on Forms 8-K, 10-Q and 10-K and proxy statements and information statements, which have been or will be filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), including without limitation under the caption "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on October 13, 2011. Many of the factors that will determine the outcome of the subject matter of this press release are beyond the Company's ability to control or predict. The Company undertakes no obligation and expressly disclaim any obligation, to revise or publicly update any forward-looking statements, or to make any other forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Source: Marketwatch

There’s a lot of excitement over the rise of electronic health records — and with good reason. Digital record keeping could make it easier for doctors, hospitals and other providers to share patient information and coordinate care. And that, health policy wonks hope, will reduce costs. Providers will be less likely to order a duplicate test, for instance, if they know a doctor has already performed it. One recent study estimated that wide-scale adoption of electronic medical records could save $8.3 billion annually just by reducing use of medical imaging.

Read more

Think the iPad is just for e-mail, eMagazines and Angry Birds? Even before the anticipated release of iPad3 very shortly with a higher resolution monitor, the iPad has been credited with helping to save a man's life. 

Still think it couldn't work for digital pathology?  Read an eSlide, make an eDifference? Get the right diagnosis for the right patient at the right time?

Still think Pathology 2.0 doesn't have a place along side Medicine 2.0?

Keep reading...

The world-renowned Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota has been issuing iPads to physicians for a while, and now one of the Apple tablets is credited with helping to save the life of a man who suffered an arterial blockage at the facility.

As reported in the Post-Bulletin newspaper, 48-year-old Andy McMonigle was working out with his cycling club at the clinic's Dan Abraham Healthy Living Center when he began to feel intense pressure in his arm. McMonigle has a history of heart trouble, so he immediately went to the locker room and asked a man for help. That man was Mayo Clinic internal medicine resident Dr. Daniel Leuders, who stayed by the side of McMonigle and yelled loudly for assistance.

Two other Mayo residents (brothers Daniel and Christopher DeSimone) were literally just around the corner, so when they arrived Leuders reached into his backpack and pulled out his iPad. Within seconds, Leuders was connected to the Mayo's electronic medical record system, where he was able to pull up McMonigle's medical history.

The history showed that McMonigle had a heart stent installed after a previous heart attack four years ago, which made the physicians suspect that he was suffering from a blockage in the stent. When an ambulance crew arrived, Leuders and the other physicians held the iPad record of McMonigle's previous EKG alongside the strip chart that was being printed in real time. What they saw further confirmed their suspicions about the blockage.

The physicians made a choice based on the EKG records that probably saved McMonigle's life. Rather than wait upwards of three hours to run a blood test to verify the clotting, the doctors rushed McMonigle to the cardiac catheterization lab where a team (alerted by activating an emergency code) was waiting. They removed the clot from his artery, which was about 90 percent blocked.

Within three days, McMonigle was released from the hospital and after four more days, he was working out again at the Healthy Living Center.

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Healthcare creates a wealth of data. Every patient encounter, even a routine checkup, generates a significant volume of information ranging from personal identification data such as Social Security number, age, and address, to clinician notes and impressions, patient data like blood pressure, temperature, pulse, as well as complexlaboratory information.

The trend is toward digital medical information, automated data entry, and the use of Electronic Health Records (EHR), Electronic Medical Records (EMR), Laboratory Information Systems (LIS) and Health Information Exchanges (HIE), among many other health IT tools. Healthcare reform and various government-led stimulus packages have further pushed the digital revolution onto healthcare. Nonetheless, there is a significant gap between reality and full adoption of digital medical information. A great deal of information is still produced on paper. Integrating it into an EHR for digital archiving, search, retrieval and analysis is a difficult, expensive and time-consuming task.

The Dark Report is happy to offer our readers a chance to download our recently published FREE White Paper “Closing The Medical Data Gap: Using IT To Close The Gap Between Health Information Systems And External Documents” at absolutely no charge. This free download will provide readers with a detailed explanation of how to improve Health Information Systems and IT in the laboratory environment.

 

BRANFORD, Conn., Feb. 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — HistoRx, the leader in quantitative immunohistochemistry, has earned two additional patents covering AQUA technology and critical elements of digital microscopy standardization. Combined with patents earned previously, these issuances by the US Patent & Trademark Office advance the Company’s proprietary position in standardization of quantitative digital pathology to a dominant role in the industry.

Challenges associated with the generation of reproducible digital microscopy images and image data at the appropriate stringency for quantitative analysis are addressed by these newly issued patents. Digital pathology initially evolved to capture images of clinical samples interrogated through the microscope for telepathology, archival and research use. Today, however, in the research and clinical settings, digital microscopy images support image analysis as well. The image is the primary source of data used for the assessment of a variety of features of the clinical sample, from morphological characteristics to measurement of biomarker expression. Robust quantitative data can only be achieved from analysis of reproducible images, generated from standardized digital microscopy instruments. Digital pathology companies interested in making the leap from merely qualitative to truly quantitative analysis can ensure an effective transition to clinic-ready results through collaboration with HistoRx.

US Patent 8,121,794 “Systems and methods for automated analysis of cells and tissues,” issued February 21, 2012, and is the third US patent protecting methods and now, microscopy systems, that localize and quantitate a biomarker in subcellular compartments in a tissue sample, the hallmark of AQUA technology.
US Patent 8,120,768, “Method and system for standardizing microscope instruments,” also issued February 21, 2012, and is the third US patent protecting methods, software, and standardized microscopy systems that provide for the generation of reproducible digital microscopy images and image data at the appropriate stringency for quantitative analysis.

“Our patent position has evolved beyond AQUA technology to methods necessary for advancing digital microscopy images from images that are visually appealing to images that are suitable for quantitative analysis with the accuracy required for clinical results,” commented Wendy Davis, VP of Intellectual Property and Portfolio Management at HistoRx. “What can be measured can be managed. It was through the use of AQUA technology that the need to standardize microscopy systems and the images they generate was revealed. Therefore the 8,120,768 patent is broadly applicable to digital microscopy bringing its utility from generating images to generating quantitative clinical diagnostic results.”

AQUA technology is an automated, quantitative IHC testing method that enables measurement of protein biomarkers in tissue as an aid to a pathologist’s diagnosis. Such precise determination of first, the location within the tumor cell and second, the amount in each location is not possible with conventional testing methods, such as standard immunohistochemistry (IHC). AQUA analysis is used in cancer research by more than twenty leading academic centers worldwide, is part of the clinical development plans for more than ten drug candidates from major pharma companies, and has been cited in more than 120 peer-reviewed publications. AQUA technology is currently available on the ScanScope FL™ from Aperio and the Vectra™ 2 system from Caliper Life Sciences, a PerkinElmer company.

About HistoRx, Inc.

HistoRx, Inc. is the leader in quantitative immunohistochemistry and a leading developer of tissue-based diagnostic solutions to advance individualized patient care. The company’s products and services are based on proprietary analysis of tissue biomarkers using AQUA technology. HistoRx is commercializing a pipeline of proprietary diagnostic products targeting improved treatment decision-making and patient outcomes in cancer care. For more information, please visit http://www.historx.com.

SOURCE HistoRx, Inc.

Patient centered medical information site. Recommended by Dr. George Lundberg at APF meeting.