American Association for Clinical Chemistry
Improving healthcare through laboratory medicine
NACB Blog
How to deal with the human aspects of introducing new technology to the clinical lab?

2/19/2013 11:55 AM | Comments (0) Recommend (304)

By Christine Snozek, PhD, DABCC, FACB
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​Introducing any form of change is challenging:  humans are change-resistant by nature, and this is even more true for those individuals whose personalities are well-suited for the clinical laboratory with its stringent regulations and SOP-driven nature.  That being said, change is inevitable even ...(Read More)
Posted at 2/19/2013 11:55 AM | Tags: Instrumentation/Technology | Management/Medical Informatics
"Lab Medicine for 2100" or "Watson, come quickly!"

5/24/2011 8:38 AM | Comments (1) Recommend (1,284)

By Douglas F. Stickle, PhD
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Many of you will have seen or heard of the recent appearance of IBM's Watson computer as a contestant on Jeopardy. The first show aired on February 14th, 2011 -- the 65th anniversary of the debut of ENIAC. The performance of Watson on Jeopardy was fantastic. The computational challenge was enormous...(Read More)
Posted at 5/24/2011 8:38 AM | Tags: Instrumentation/Technology | Management/Medical Informatics
Is Code 128 an Acceptable Bar Code Standard for Patient Identification in Today’s Health Care System?

2/22/2011 8:08 AM | Comments (2) Recommend (1,169)

By Corinne Fantz, PhD, DABCC, FACB
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The use of bar codes for identification purposes has made many health care processes more reliable and efficient. However, while the current laboratory standard is Code 128, it is certainly not the safest and most reliable symbology in use today.  Malfunctioning bar code printers, improperly size...(Read More)
Posted at 2/22/2011 8:08 AM | Tags: Government Affairs/Patient Safety | Management/Medical Informatics
Is A1c Inferior to Plasma Glucose for Detecting Diabetes Risk?

2/1/2011 8:58 AM | Comments (7) Recommend (1,292)

By William E. Winter, MD, FACB
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A recent article in Diabetes Care (1) found that hemoglobin A1c did not perform as well for the detection of risk for diabetes as fasting plasma glucose or the 2-h glucose on an OGTT. Do you agree or disagree? Is this the only interpretation of the data? What else might be studied?   My comme...(Read More)
Posted at 2/1/2011 8:58 AM | Tags: Diabetes/Endocrinology | Management/Medical Informatics