AS YOU WILL READ ON PAGE 9 of this issue, THE DARK REPORT was recently honored by a national news association, which awarded it first place for "Best Investigative Reporting" against some tough competition.

Indulge me, for a moment, as I explain to you why this is a big deal. As a laboratory leader, you cannot make the best decisions if you lack accurate and timely news and understanding about current developments in the laboratory testing marketplace and the healthcare system it serves.

In fact, when there is a lack of informed news and understanding, it becomes easier to make the wrong business decision, with dire consequences to your laboratory, your loyal employees, and probably your personal career status. And that is why THE DARK REPORT, and its peer news sources covering the lab testing industry, are essential partners in your success.

Every day with every patient specimen, your laboratory has the power to change the course of that patient's life. It can be for the better if an accurate result aids the clinician in making a difficult diagnosis. But, it can be for the worse if the lab test result is inaccurate due to the lab's internal deficiencies and failures, thus misleading patient and doctor. Every lab professional knows how a single wrong lab test result can cause irreversible-and sometimes lifelong-harm to the patient.

It may not have occurred to you that your preferred source of lab news and analysis faces similar risks. You rely on your lab news provider to cover all the stories that are important. You trust your lab news source to get the facts right, and provide objective and unbiased reporting of these news events. Simply put, you want to trust your source of laboratory news just as patients and physicians want to trust the accuracy of the lab test results reported by your laboratory.

That is why it is important to you as a reader that THE DARK REPORT has won its second national journalism award for "Best Investigative Reporting." This is validation by an indendent panel of journalists that THE DARK REPORT is both covering the stories that are important to the laboratory industry and reporting them accurately.

I hope you will join me in congratulating editor Robert L. Michel and the entire team at THE DARK REPORT for this national recognition. It is a sign that there is a free and independent press reporting on the stories that are important to the laboratory testing profession.

Healthcare Reform and Threats to Lab Testing

Laboratory testing industry will face threats from two primary aspects of health reform process

CEO SUMMARY: Annual healthcare spending now pushes past $2.5 trillion and this summer's debate about how to best reform healthcare in the United States will be raucous and emotional. For the laboratory testing industry, the stakes are immense. THE DARK REPORT identifies two primary threats to the lab testing profession. One is spending cuts to existing government lab testing programs to free cash for other purposes. The second is the potential for closed provider networks in new health programs.

Lab Briefs:
NEW PATHOLOGY LABS OPEN ON EAST COAST AND WEST COAST, NEW TECHNOLOGY ENABLES WESTERN BLOT BY DIGITAL IMAGING, DNA DIRECT TO ADMINISTER HUMANA'S GENETIC TESTING

New Phlebotomist Policy Achieves Zero Error Rate

For more than a year, Nevada medical center cuts contaminants in blood cultures to zero

CEO SUMMARY: It's not often when a hospital laboratory can use a patient safety project to achieve zero defects for more than one year. But that's what happened at Desert View Hospital in Las Vegas, Nevada,when it went an entire year with no contaminants in draws for blood culture. DVH has 25 beds and does 110 blood culture draws each month. Nationally, the average rate of blood culture contamination is 3% to 5%. The financial benefits to the hospital supported the cost of adding more phlebotomy staff to achieve this goal.

DARK REPORT and Editor Michel Earn National Reporting Award

News association bestows "Best Investigative Reporting" for coverage of unprecedented Vitamin D test inaccuracies

In Washington, DC, last month, at the Specialized Information Publishers Association (SIPA) annual conference, Editor Michel learned that judges had bestowed the First Place award.

Educated Consumers Buying 250-Bioassay Lab Test Panel

Biophysical Corporation of Austin, Texas, Enjoys Growing Market

CEO SUMMARY: Biophysical Corporation is creating a new, direct-to-consumer market for laboratory testing. Its unique approach is to offer 250-bioassay test panels-along with a staff physician review of results-to the educated, informed consumer. Testing multiple biomarkers makes it possible to identify disease and predict risk in asymptomatic patients. High profile customers such as Oprah Winfrey and Martha Stewart have discussed their positive experiences with this testing in television interviews.

Teamwork Between Labs Helped NYC Flu Response

City's public health laboratory worked closely with hospital labs to handle A/Novel H1N1 testing

CEO SUMMARY: Shaped by the experiences of 9/11 and the anthrax outbreak in 2001, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene revised and improved its preparedness plan. With the outbreak of influenza A/Novel H1N1 this spring, the Public Health Department benefited from effective collaboration with area hospitals and commercial laboratories. The public health laboratory, although testing as many flu specimens in a day as it typically tests during one year, kept pacewith the incoming sample flow and provided timely results to health officials.

INTELLIGENCE: Late & Latent

GE ANNOUNCES $6 BILLION TO FUND HEALTH INITIATIVES

GENETIX ACQUIRES SLIDEPATH LTD

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