Thus far this influenza season has been far less severe than the 2017-18 season. Last year Influenza A subtype H3N2 was the most common sub type reported accounting for 84% of infections. This season H1N1 is most prevalent accounting for approximately 65% of reported infections. The influenza...

Proficiency testing is laboratory testing of unknown samples provided by a CMS approved proficiency testing provider.  The CLIA regulations require proficiency testing to be performed on all regulated analytes. 

In 2014, the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation conducted a survey to determine physician views on the overuse of medical services in the US. Almost 75% of the responding physicians indicated that frequency of use of unnecessary tests and procedures is a significant problem. With 72% of...

Across the United States we saw a significant increase in the number of reported influenza cases during the last week of December. Along with the increase of diagnosed cases there was a corresponding increase in the number of hospitalizations of patients with laboratory confirmed influenza from 1.9...

The CDC recently released data on numbers of infections of the three most prevalent STDs: Chlamydia, Gonorrhea and Syphilis. The data indicated approximately 2.3 million individuals contracted a sexually transmitted disease in 2018. The CDC notes that the rates have been on the upswing since 2013...

With last year’s flu season being one of the worst in many years, it is timely that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved the first novel treatment for the flu in almost 20 years. Having another tool to combat the virus is paramount. Which accounts for the FDA giving it priority...

Recently we have encountered several laboratories in which the employees were not paying adequate attention and in some cases ignoring flags generated by hematology analyzers during testing. The technological developments over the past thirty plus years have enabled guidelines to be programmed into...

A recent article in Medscape, “Malpractice Case: Are You Sure the Patient Received the Test Results” discusses the complexity of large medical practices and the reality that in today's specialized environment, patients see multiple providers. The article makes the very valid point that this...

The future is today. We are able to see and chat with someone on the other side of the world with a device that most people own and it fits in the palm of the hands. With all the electronic devices available to us today, patients' medical records can be shared on a computer or cell phone screen and...

In November of 2017, the FDA published an alert that elevated levels of the water soluble vitamin biotin (also known as vitamin B7, vitamin H and coenzyme R), can significantly interfere with certain immunoassays that rely on biotin technology i.e. the reagents performing the analysis contain...