COVER STORIES

Thyroid Health in Pregnancy
Is it Time to Implement Universal TSH Screening?
By Genna Rollins

As many as 5% of pregnant women experience some sort of thyroid dysfunction, putting themselves and their babies at risk for short- and long-term health complications. Yet these common, potentially serious thyroid imbalances often are under-appreciated and may go undetected. Now, two new guidelines not only are raising the visibility of thyroid disease in pregnancy, but they also are underscoring the importance of close laboratorian-clinician collaboration around thyroid test ordering and interpretation.

The Surge in Retail Clinics
Expansion of Services Signals More Testing
By Bill Malone

As the healthcare system prepares to cope with an influx of 30 million Americans who will have health coverage as a result of the Affordable Care Act, a surging market of retail clinics is poised to take on a wider role to relieve the bottleneck. No longer merely an anomaly or an experiment of a few drug store chains, retail clinics have steadily expanded, adding more tests to their menus and partnering with health systems and insurers to become embedded in local healthcare systems.

SERIES ARTICLE

Fertility Testing
How Laboratory Tests Contribute to Successful Infertility Treatments
By Abigail Delaney, MD, Jani R. Jensen, MD, and Dean Morbeck, PhD

With 15% of couples worldwide affected by infertility, treatments for this problem have become increasingly important. Laboratory tests play an integral role in the extensive workup for infertility and can help determine primary diagnosis, assess ovarian reserve, manage in vitro fertilization cycles, and predict response to controlled-ovarian-hyperstimulation.

NEWS BRIEF

Physician Health IT Capabilities Not Meeting Consumer Demand

INSIDE

AACC Elects New Officers

AACC members elected Steven Wong, PhD, DABCC, FACB, to serve as President of the association in 2014.

SYCL SnapShots

Practical Considerations for Implementing a New Lab Analyzer
By Julie Shaw, PhD

Purchasing a new analyzer for the lab? Follow these steps to ensure the process goes smoothly, from the decision to acquire the instrument through the start of patient testing.

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