Medical Laboratory Observer articles from September 2006

Medical Laboratory Observer archives from September 2006

Globalization: the new party line.(Editorial)
September 1, 2006... An early morning long-distance call from Germany to my desk in Florida from an American Army nurse was one of my first here at MLO. Scheduled to do an infant heel stick within the hour, she had an urgent question about technique and asked if...

On time clocks and taking time.(Readers respond)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... Re: Management Q & A, "Salaried employee using a time clock," July 2006, p. 34: The determination that a person is either exempt or non-exempt should answer all questions--but never seems to. Exempt employees should not generally "clock in" for...

Recruiting ideas.(Readers respond)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... The excellent article "Recruiting for the Future of the Clinical Laboratory" [MLO, August 2006, p. 46] calls into question why medical schools do not follow the lead of cooperative plans for educating engineers. In those plans, there are two...

Remembering Katrina.(Readers respond)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... Editor's Note: As we recall the tragedies from Hurricane Katrina in 2005, we received notice that the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) chronicled the experiences and contributions of local public health...

Going inland at U of Southern MS.(Readers respond)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... Most of the damaged buildings on the Hattiesburg campus have been repaired, and we are back to normal. The damage to the Gulf Park campus in Long Beach was catastrophic. The campus is operating from a renovated older hospital that the...

Blessings in Birmingham.(Readers respond)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... The refugees that I know personally have new jobs and plan to remain in Birmingham. They now consider Katrina a blessing in their lives! There is still much to do to rebuild down on the coast. Thanks for your concern and a great journal. ...

Hard changes.(Readers respond)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... Our mother died. My sister was torn between restoring her first home and making the house we grew up in the place our mom wanted it to be. As mom was dying, Anna would sit up at night with her and they would plan ways to remodel the house to...

Painful politics.(Readers respond)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... We moved away from New Orleans in June. The political shenanigans that were so entertaining before the storm were too painful to watch after the storm. --Timothy Stegall, PhD, CLSp(MB) 21st Century Laboratory Consulting LLC ...

Affected labs adopted for NHPW.(Readers respond)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... I do not live in an area directly affected by Katrina. I have not been to the affected areas in South Louisiana but know there is still much to do there before the area recovers. There were many kindnesses given to those in the Louisiana,...

Avian flu update.(Global diseases)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Avian flu update. August 1 marked the 44th bird flu death in Indonesia. A total of 56 cases have been confirmed there so far. Although Indonesia has been criticized for not aggressively combating the virus, a cooperative pilot project between...

SARS discovery.(severe acute respiratory syndrome)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... SARS discovery. Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston have found what they call the "secret weapon" of SARS. According to a UTMB microbiology and immunology professor, SARS uses a nspl corona virus protein...

Hepatitis B therapeutic vaccine.(Global diseases)(ViRexx Medical Corp. developing HepaVaxx B)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Hepatitis B therapeutic vaccine. WHO considers hepatitis B as a global health issue, with one out of every three people infected with the virus. A Canadian biotechnology company, ViRexx Medical Corp., has finished a Phase I trial for HepaVaxx...

CCHF outbreak.(crimean congo hemorrhagic fever )(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... CCHF outbreak. A recent outbreak of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) in Turkey has resulted in 242 cases with 20 deaths as of Aug. 9. WHO and the Turkish Ministry of Health are closely monitoring the disease, which is severe in humans and...

Drug-resistant staph more common.(Global diseases)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Drug-resistant staph more common. MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), also known as the "superbug," has historically been found in hospitals, nursing homes, and healthcare facilities or among inmates and athletes. Now it is...

Direct-to-consumer lab tests.(Government Accountability Office investigations)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Direct-to-consumer lab tests. On July 27, the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging heard issues regarding direct-to-consumer genetic tests as well as Government Accountability Office (GAO) findings from an investigation of four companies that...

More Gates' AIDS funding.(Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... More Gates' AIDS funding. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced that it will distribute a half-billion-dollar grant to the Global Fund to fight AIDS in developing countries over the next five years. Created four years ago with the...

No fooling the FDA.(Food and Drug Administration is developing pyrolysis mass spectometry for the prevention of bioterrorism)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... No fooling the FDA. In a 2001 bioterrorism hoax, a rapid-screening kit incorrectly identified questionable substances as anthrax. To avoid such false positives, the FDA is developing a test that can differentiate between real and fake...

Coupons and counterterrorism.(News)(BioSentinel Solutions patented technology to prevent bioterrorism)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Coupons and counterterrorism. When cashiers ring up over-the-counter (OTC) medications, they may be doing more than adding points to preferred customer cards. They may also be fighting bioterrorism. Because Americans typically self-medicate...

Longer needles for infants.(News)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Longer needles for infants. A study recently published in the British Medical Journal by Oxford researchers states that longer needles are better when immunizing infants because they have determined that local reactions were reduced and...

The bilingual lab.("The Pocket Idiot's Guide to Spanish for Health Care Professionals" from Alpha Books)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... The bilingual lab. According to the 2000 U.S. census, Spanish speakers in America increased by 62% (15 million people) from 1990 to 2000. Bilingualism for healthcare professionals is a growing obstacle to providing quality medical services....

Medical-interpreter certificate program.(Education)
September 1, 2006... Medical-interpreter certificate program. For those already bilingual in Spanish and English, the University of Georgia's Continuing Education Center offers a Spanish/English medical interpreter certificate program. The 30-hour course, offered...

Online degree receives accreditation.(University of Cincinnati's Online Health Management degree program got certified by Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Online degree receives accreditation. The University of Cincinnati's (UC) Online Health Management degree program recently received accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education....

Conferences.(The Observatory)(Calendar)
September 1, 2006... Sept. 16-21. The United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology holds its XXVI Congress at the Montreal Convention Centre, Canada. Plenary and scientific sessions are offered, as well as CME credits. For more information, visit...

A brief history of medical diagnosis and the birth of the clinical laboratory, Part 5a--the foundation of molecular science and genetics.(Editorial)(Cover story)
September 1, 2006... CONTINUING EDUCATION To earn CEUs, see test on page 24. LEARNING OBJECTIVES Upon completion of this article, the reader will be able to: 1. Identify six scientists and explain how their discoveries have proven to be pivotal to...

What the 1918 flu pandemic teaches us: yesterday's lessons inform today's preparedness.(CLINICAL ISSUES)
September 1, 2006... The 1918 influenza pandemic killed more people in 26 weeks than the AIDS epidemic has killed in 26 years. According to Nobel laureate F. Macfarlane Burnett who studied the pandemic, the worldwide death toll was between 50 and 100 million...

Quality collection: the phlebotomist's role in pre-analytical errors.(LAB MANAGEMENT)
September 1, 2006... Medical error has been defined as a "failure to process." (1) The ultimate consequences of pre-analytical errors introduced during the specimen-collection process span a broad spectrum of negative outcomes. For the patient, these outcomes range...

Developing your ISBT 128 implementation plan: 12 things to consider in preparing for the new standard.(LAB MANAGEMENT)(International Society of Blood Transfusion)
September 1, 2006... When the 24th edition of American Association of Blood Banking's (AABB's) Standards for Blood Banks and Transfusion Services becomes effective on November 1, 2006, every AABB-accredited blood bank and transfusion service will be required to...

George Kennedy and Leica join art with science.(Executive snapshot)(Leica Microsystems)
September 1, 2006... Realities of today's clinical lab: In the clinical pathology field, a number of key trends have developed that challenge the histology lab and its suppliers. The current national shortage of trained histotechnologists makes it difficult for...

MLTs sail on the high seas and explore the ocean's treasures.(EDUCATION)(medical laboratory technologists)
September 1, 2006... What do you get when you cross a medical laboratory technologist with a submarine? A whole new perspective on clinical laboratory science. The seas abound with more than aquatic life; they offer new avenues of exploration for the practicing or...

Jury duty.(Addressing management issues)
September 1, 2006... Q Our boss recently implemented a requirement for employees to return to work on weekdays between the hours of 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. when they are summoned for jury duty but are released early. Having the employee return to work does not make...

Who is in charge?(addressing management issues of labs)
September 1, 2006... Q I have started a small outreach laboratory in an academic department. Recently the financial officer of the department decided that the lab needs a business manager and has placed one of our information system people with a new MBA over the...

Quantitative tissue cultures.(Answering your questions)
September 1, 2006... Q Since the recent opening of a wound-care center at my facility, the microbiology department has received quite a few quantitative tissue-culture requests. The set-up and subsequent work-up of these are a strain on my already thin staff. The...

Trace urine acetone.(Answering your questions)
September 1, 2006... Q The instructions for reading Bayer Acetest tablets results list the results as small, medium, or large. What should I do when there is a slight purple color (not pink) that is less than small? Do you call it small, negative, or trace,...

Setting QC means and ranges.(Answering your questions)(quality control reports of medical labs)
September 1, 2006... Q I keep getting conflicting information when it comes to the "right" way to manage quality-control means and ranges. One expert says that you should always look at what the peer group is doing and adjust your mean values accordingly when...

Utility of osmotic fragility test.(answering your questions)(hematopathology department management)
September 1, 2006... Q As a cost-containment and labor-reduction effort, our hematopathology department is reviewing our list of tests. We are seeking information regarding the feasibility and cost effectiveness of performing the osmotic fragility test, which is so...

Supporting troops through USERRA.(Liability and the lab)(Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1993 (Draft))(lab management)
September 1, 2006... Q We have a lab tech who was called up from the U. S. Army Reserve to serve in the Middle East and who has been absent for more than a year. What is our obligation to keep a job open for her return? A With so many reserve troops having been...

HIV testing: an update.(SPECIAL FEATURE)(Human immunodeficiency virus)
September 1, 2006... HIV testing has significantly improved since the first diagnostic test in 1985. Increased understanding of HIV transmission and the clinical course of the infection, together with the availability of new techniques, have changed the strategies...

Win-win for everyone, including phlebotomists.(Product focus: Laboratory information systems)
September 1, 2006... Browser-based Orchard Copia sports user-defined rules for automatic approval of results, results flagging for technologist review, and reflex test ordering based upon result value, specific patient, ordering location, and/or ordering...

Easily expanded LIS.(Product focus: Laboratory information systems)(Hex Laboratory Systems)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Modular in design, LAB/HEX is a complete LIS. All routine lab tasks are managed, including order and result entry; bar coding and scanning; microbiology, cytology, and pathology; user-de-finable reports, autofaxing, remote printing, and...

Cost-effective core-lab LIS.(Product focus: Laboratory information systems)(Softlab Inc.)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... SoftLab simplifies even the most complex operating environments where speed, accuracy, and cost are all-important. The fully integrated system provides a seamless interface that links the clinical laboratory, microbiology, pathology,...

Scalable, secure solution.(Product focus: Laboratory information systems)(Fletcher Flora)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... encaLaber is a scalable and secure Web-based laboratory information system solution for any size hospital, reference laboratory, or large group practice. Flexible to run on multiple ODBC-compliant relational databases, in either Linux or...

New and enhanced modules for improved service.(Product focus: Laboratory information systems)(NeTLIMS)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... A brand-new addition to the fully integrated AutoLims product suite, AutoMobile, revolutionizes the world of on-the-road and in-hospital phlebotomy with PDA-based remote access, which allows phlebotomists in real time to be notified of...

Boost patient-records storage capacity.(Product focus: Laboratory information systems)(Beckman Coulter Inc.)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... DL2000 Data Manager v6.5 is the latest release of the company's clinical laboratory instrument software. When paired with an optional database server, DL2000 v6.5 delivers a significantly increased real-time data storage capability--about 20...

Avoid cost and complexity.(Product focus: Laboratory information systems)(Psyche Systems Corp.)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... The expansion of the e.lixa suite of LIS extension applications enables labs to enhance the marketability of their reports and give physicians flexible access options. e.charts allows the lab to add images to patient reports or display a...

LIS technology generates a strong ROI.(laboratory information system, return on investment )
September 1, 2006... For laboratory managers lobbying for a new or replacement laboratory information system (LIS), convincing management there is a return on investment (ROI) can be a challenge. Forced to stretch beyond their areas of expertise because of...

Environmental data monitoring.(Industry spotlight)
September 1, 2006... The ARMS (advanced remote monitoring system) is highly configurable, and can be tailored to meet virtually any need and set of standard operating procedures. The 24/7, wireless, real-time solution eliminates the need for any manual monitoring...

Safety sign-making.(K-Sun Inc.)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... MaxiSigns V.2 does most of the work for safety professionals when making signs, improving efficiency, safety, security and identification compliance. To assist with compliance, MaxiSigns V.2 contains regulation summaries that help safety...

Bleach dilution system.(Deardorff Fitzsimmons Corp.)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Activate 5.25 Institutional Bleach Dilution System eliminates the inconveniences and waste associated with applying bleach to surfaces. It features a unique two-bottle trigger sprayer that automatically dilutes 5.25% sodium hypochlorite with...

Candida fungal medium.(Industry spotlight)
September 1, 2006... HardyCHROM Candida is a chromogenic, selective and differential medium recommended for use in the primary cultivation and isolation of yeast species most commonly isolated from clinical specimens. This medium relies on chromogenic substances...

Clinical pathology reference.(Industry spotlight)
September 1, 2006... Confidently prepare for the clinical pathology component of certification, recertification, or in-service exams using Henry's Clinical Diagnosis and Management by Laboratory Methods, 21st Edition. Find the answers you need fast thanks to a new...

Training, mentoring, certification.(Industry spotlight)
September 1, 2006... ValuMetrix Services Six Sigma Green Belt Training is designed to teach your candidate Six Sigma core competencies. ValuMetrix uses a comprehensive method to measure competency and prove project goals are met through training, mentoring, and...

Is your organization ethically fit?(Washington report)
September 1, 2006... Everyone is familiar with the cancerous moral meltdown that arose in Enron's business culture. Fewer are likely aware that the Chernobyl power plant disaster resulted from a meltdown of ethics by Soviet engineers. The former wiped out billions...