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With payment models gradually changing from volume to value, clinical laboratories need to consider how they can add value and how they can implement the changes. This strategy is known as “Lab 2.0.” “Traditionally, clinical labs function in a transactional “Lab 1.0” space: generating and reporting test results to care providers,” David Grenache, PhD, DABCC, the chief scientific officer of TriCore Reference Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and chair of the 2018 Annual Meeting Organizing Committee, told CLN Stat. “Obviously, this is an essential function in healthcare delivery that isn’t going to go away but the payment models are shifting and labs that can’t or won’t adapt are going to be commoditized,” he said.
This changing reality is what led Grenache to create the chair’s invited session, (32220) Clinical Lab 2.0: How Laboratories Can Support Value Based Care, Optimize Patient Outcomes, and Reduce Total Cost of Care in Acute and Chronic Conditions, which will take place July 30 from 2:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the 70th AACC Annual Scientific Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo in Chicago.
Grenache urged attendees to sit in on this session. “Lab 2.0 is paving the road to the future of clinical diagnostics. Laboratories have to find a path to that road to remain relevant,” he observed.
Grenache’s colleagues at TriCore will discuss the different applications of Clinical Lab 2.0. Michael Crossey, MD, PhD will describe how labs can support value-based care through a 2.0 paradigm. Moderator Kathleen Swanson, MS, RPh, and Richard VanNess, MS, will focus on labs’ role in supporting value-based care for chronic and acute conditions, respectively.
All laboratories need to identify how to provide more value in the current healthcare market to ensure their continued viability, Swanson told CLN Stat. “One of the key factors needed for laboratories to provide data insights with longitudinal test data is to harness the power of their data. Laboratories in any setting, given the right technology, can partner with providers, health systems, and payers to deliver this added value,” she suggested.
TriCore is committed to demonstrating how labs can contribute to value-based care models, said Grenache. “By using longitudinal lab data from its data warehouse, TriCore has created targeted intervention modules that bring sharp focus to specific areas of population health,” he explained.
One module on prenatal care was able to identify pregnant women with care gaps who were at high risk for preterm delivery, enabling care coordinators to manage these at-risk patients more efficiently. This resulted in decreased neonatal intensive care unit admissions at birth and produced a significant cost savings for the payers.
Additional intervention models have focused on highly prevalent chronic illnesses such as diabetes, hepatitis C virus, and chronic kidney disease. Others are in the works.
Swanson hopes that attendees will come away from this session “energized to help move their laboratories from a transactional to a translational data model as a way to differentiate themselves.”
Attend this session at the 70th AACC Annual Scientific Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo in Chicago and earn 2.5 CE hours.