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At Lab Revolution Conference, a Peek Inside Quest's 'Lab of the Future'By Stephanie Murg, Managing Director of Conferences & Events, G2 Intelligence
What does the lab of the future look like? This question was addressed by a broad range of experts at G2 Intelligence's Lab Revolution 2015 conference, held March 11-13 in Orlando, Florida. Among the speakers from across the health care industry who considered the coming challenges and opportunities for laboratory medicine and pathology was Denis Gallagher, Vice President of Operations for Quest Diagnostics (Madison, N.J.). Rather than look to a crystal ball or prevailing trends, Gallagher focused his presentation on Quest's new, state-of-the-art clinical test laboratory in Marlborough, Massachusetts
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Coverage for Electron Microscopy Left to MACs
By Christopher P. Young, Editor, G2 Compliance Advisor
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has removed the national coverage determination (NCD) for electron microscopy (EM) from the Medicare National Coverage Determinations Internet only manual (Pub 100-03), leaving coverage determinations to the local Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs). According to transmittal R180NCD, the effective date for the change is Dec. 18, 2014 and the implementation date is April 6, 2015.
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FDA, AACR and ASCO Seeking to Harmonize Companion Diagnostics for Cancer Treatments
By Kelly A. Briganti, Editorial Director, G2 Intelligence
Concerned that cancer patients may not receive "optimal care" when there are "multiple targeted therapy-companion diagnostic pairs," the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), American Association for Cancer Research and the American Society of Clinical Oncology have planned a public workshop to engage in an "in-depth discussion of harmonization of companion diagnostic devices across a class of targeted therapies." The workshop will be held March 24, 2015 in Washington D.C., in person and via an audiocast.
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Quest Strikes Deal With Personalis on Pediatric Exome Testing
By Ron Shinkman, Editor, Laboratory Industry Report
Quest Diagnostics has teamed with the California-based testing firm Personalis to provide a whole exome sequencing product to detect rare genetic disorders among pediatric patients.
The product, known as Neurome, is being offered through the New Jersey-based Quest's Athena Diagnostics division and is based on Personalis' ACE Exome testing platform. It focuses on the 1 to 2 percent of the genome where most genetic defects occur.
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Online Marketing of Personalized Oncology Services May Be Misleading
By Lori Solomon, Editor, Diagnostic Testing & Emerging Technologies
Online marketing of personalized cancer tests and services frequently overemphasize their reported benefits, neglect to disclose their limitations, and promote genetic tests that do not have demonstrated clinical utility, according to a study published March 5 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
"While somatic and germline testing stands to dramatically improve patient outcomes, the paucity of genetic testing regulation may undermine high-quality cancer care if unproven products are promoted," write the authors led by Stacy Gray, M.D., from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Boston).
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