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Commentary
& Opinion by R. Lewis Dark, Founder & Publisher
It's
time to pay attention to a growing area of medicine loosely described as
"information therapy." It is the concept of providing consumers
and patients with reliable health information without requiring face-to-face
visits with physicians or other healthcare professionals.
For clinical laboratories and anatomic pathologists, this is an important
development. After all, information is the stock in trade for any
laboratory. It seems obvious that "information therapy" would
play directly to the strengths of clinical laboratories. When you learn
more, I think you'll agree.
There is a growing body of evidence which indicates that consumers who access
accurate and carefully vetted medical information will generate fewer visits to
either the emergenccy room or the physician's office. This reduces the
cost of caring for these patients. This has been the experience at Kaiser
Permanente, which is moving rapidly to incorporate information therapy into its
continuum of care. In 1996, Kaiser launced Kaiser Permanente Online as a
pilot project. It is a password-protected site that offers a variety of
services: health and drug encyclopedias, personalized health risk assessments,
e-mail connections to nurses and physicians for questions and on-line
appointment booking, and doctor-monitored health discussion groups.
Originally started with 1,000 members, it now has almost 325,000 registered
members. Kaiser estimates that 71% of its eight million beneficiaries have
access to the Web, so it's beefing up the capacity of its Website.
Another place to learn more about information therapy is Healthwise, a
non-profit organization in Boise, Idaho. For years, Healthwise has
produced pamphlets and other patient-information materials for healthcare
providers. It is now expanding into Web-based health information services.
The concept of information therapy is perfect for laboratories. After all,
within the healthcare system, who know more about when and why it's appropriate
to order a specific lab test, and how to interpret the results? This is a
tailor-made opportunity for laboratories to establish direct links with
consumers and educate them about the importance of laboratory testing to all
aspects of their personal health.
I'll end with a provocative quote from Anna-Lisa Silvestre, Director of Kaiser
Permanente Online. She says: "The Internet is becoming a triage
station consumers go to first, whereas before they might have come in to the
doctor or done nothing at all."
Eight
Trends Reshaping Clinical Lab Services
Disruptive
technologies starting to alter the traditional role of clinical laboratories
CEO
Summary: Once again, The Dark Report's annual list of lab industry trends
deals less with government regulation and influence on laboratory operations and
more with the impact of new technologies and new management philosophies.
Marketplace acceptance of these lab industry trends is occurring swiftly.
Throughout 2000, early adopter labs moved readily to respond to these new
technologies.
Lab
Industry Trend #1
Consumers
are here
Lab
Industry Trend #2
Clinical
Data Repositories
Lab
Industry Trend #3
Web-Based
Test Reporting
Lab
Industry Trend #4
Lab
Regionalization
Lab
Industry Trend #5
E-Health
Services
Lab
Industry Trend #6
Incremental
Automation
Lab
Industry Trend #7
Med
Tech Availability
Lab
Industry Trend #8
Management
Philosophy
"Local"
Anatomic Path Has Two Major Players
Consolidations
and mergers during 2000 reduce options for local pathology groups
CEO
SUMMARY: After a lot of money and much effort, the fledgling crop of
companies wanting to consolidate and manage pathology group practices has
narrowed into just two market leaders: AmeriPath and Pathology Service
Associates. These two companies could not be more different in their goals
and operating philosophies. For local pathology groups, this is certainly
an unexpected outcome.
Market
Favors Five Distinct Pathology Business Models
In
recent years, five primary business models have emerged in the anatomic
pathology marketplace. Because of ongoing changes to the American
healthcare system....
Lab
Industry Briefs
Early
Adopters Offer Web-enabled Lab Test Reporting to Doctors
Cytyc
& Tripath Imaging Issue Earnings Reports for Q-4 and Full Year
Anthem
Insurance Co. Plans a Huge Stock Sale Later in 2001
Lab
Sales & Marketing Programs are Changing
National
labs are altering sales incentives, regional labs and path firms are expanding
CEO
SUMMARY: Market evidence points to a shifting role in the sales priorities
of the national labs. Meanwhile, regional laboratories and pathology
companies are enjoying surprising success with their sales and marketing
programs. These shifting patterns may indicate a new stratification in the
laboratory services marketplace. It may be closely linked ot managed care
contracting practices.
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