Many thanks to my readers, followers, critics, contributors, commentors and sponsors.  The intent of the blog remains as it did 4 years ago - to educate and inform the pathology and laboratory community on digital pathology, other technology news items and occassional dips into government and regulatory issues for the broader picture of healthcare and pathology's opportunities and weaknesses as we look ahead.  No doubt healthcare reform changes, medicare/medicaid issues, FDA regulation, changes in the practice and business of the practice of pathology and laboratory medicine will affect some change on all of us. And no doubt that social media will affect how that news and commentary is shared and honored to be a part of it in this growing community.  Best wishes for a healthy 2012 and a year of great things to come! Keith

Promising news out of Paris for suitable blood products when inventories remain tight for donor blood. Will see if subsequent use and experimentation can both create viable red cells that can remain in circulation and maintain their oxygen-carrying capacity.

The Chicago Tribune (12/29) reports that according to a study in published in the journal Blood, "red blood cells generated in a lab have been successfully injected into a human volunteer for the first time." French researchers extracted "hematopoetic stem cells from a volunteer's bone marrow" and used various growth factors to induce the cells to differentiate into red blood cells (RBC). "After five days, 94 to 100 percent of the cells remained in circulation, while after 26 days, 41 to 63 percent remained -- a survival rate comparable to normal red blood cells. The cultured blood cells also gave every indication of being safe to use. ... They behaved like normal red blood cells, binding to oxygen and releasing it." While this result is promising, researchers note that "next challenge is to scale up production to a point where the cultured blood cells can be made quickly and cheaply in sufficient quantities for blood transfusions."

Smart move by Volkswagen.  Mobile technologies, in my own experience, can disrupt the delicate work-life-family balance.  It is good to be "connected" but checking e-mail as often as you can, likely for many items that can wait until after dinner or the next morning is a trap.  Of course, I suppose one could do this themselves but perhaps the employees felt a sense of having to use this service or perhaps it gave them a sense of belonging to always be "connected" to the office and their colleagues. 

Pathology call aside, when my phone and I get home, it gets plugged in and rarely (OK - seldomly) gets checked before the next morning.  I just get out my laptop and check e-mails...  For the past year on family vacations I do leave my phone and iPad in the room and guess what - do not miss a darn thing that couldn't wait. 

Speaks to digital pathology a bit - while you can review a case from anywhere, anytime which I have mentioned is one of the many value adds for the technology - should you or would you really want to?  In some cases - you are the world's expert in a particular disorder and find yourself skiing in Switzerland when the call comes in.  You may be able to help out someone.  Out of the office at a research meeting and the afternoon is going to be spent on CS protein in the liver, a little outside your sphere of interest while that new client you attracted is now busy with their endoscopes and flooding your colleagues who could use a hand to maintain good service and turn around time?  Sure. Done.  Dedicated consults or make up for shortages or where demand exceeds supply.  Quiet hotel room with high-speed networking. No reason not to. 

In the meantime, hold off on e-mails that likely will wait a few more hours to be opened, read, responded to or trashed.  The e-mail will wait for you patiently and not care. 

Looks like this idea of turning off the e-mail server is gaining popularity in Europe. 

The comments are worth a read on this as well.  And I promise not to hound you with late night e-mails.

Volkswagen has agreed to stop its Blackberry servers sending emails to some of its employees when they are off-shift.

The carmaker confirmed it made the move earlier this year following complaints that staff's work and home lives were becoming blurred.

The restriction covers employees in Germany working under trade union negotiated contracts.

Campaigners warned that the move would not be suitable for all companies.

A spokesman for VW said: "We confirm that this agreement between VW and the company's work council exists", but would not comment further.

Under the arrangement servers stop routing emails 30 minutes after the end of employees' shifts, and then start again 30 minutes before they return to work.

The staff can still use their devices to make calls and the rule does not apply to senior management.

"We wanted to take a preventative approach to tackling the issue," said Gunnar Killian, VW's works council spokesman.

"At Volkswagen flexitime is between 0730-1745, with our new arrangement workers can only receive emails between 0700 and 1815."

Spare time

The move follows criticism of internal emails by Thierry Breton, chief executive of the French information technology services giant, Atos. He said workers at his firm were wasting hours of their lives on internal messages both at home and at work. He has taken the more radical step of banning internal email altogether from 2014.

Last month the maker of Persil washing powder, Henkel, also declared an email "amnesty" for its workers between Christmas and New Year saying messages should only be sent out as an emergency measure.

Industry watchers say the moves reflect growing awareness of a problem.

"It's bad for the individual worker's performance being online and available 24-7. You do need downtime, you do need periods in which you can actually reflect on something without needing instantaneously to give a reaction," said Will Hutton, chair of the Big Innovation Centre at The Work Foundation.

"Secondly it has a poor impact on an individual's well-being. I think that one has to patrol quite carefully the borderline between work and non-work.

"So I can see why some firms are taking this action, the problem is that a universal response is impossible... but certainly we should have the capacity to be opted out of it rather than be opted in."

Consultations

Union officials in the UK have also cautioned other firms against repeating Volkswagen's move without consultation.

"The issue of employees using Blackberrys, computers and other devices out of working time is a growing one that needs to be addressed as it can be a source of stress," Trades Union Congress (TUC) secretary general Brendan Barber told the BBC.

"However other organisations will need different solutions and what works in VW may not work elsewhere.

"By working in partnership with their union, Volkswagen's policy will have the support of all their employees. Where employers simply introduce policies on their own, however well-meaning they may be, they are unlikely to be successful."

Nice story for the holiday season -- Brockville General Hospital in Ontario, Canada recently exceeded their annual fundraising goal and will use the donations to purchase a telepathology system for purposes of secondary consultation.

BGH raises $142,300 for laboratory

They answered the pleas and put patients at ease.

Donations to this year's Brockville and District Hospital Foundation Annual Appeal surpassed the goal of $135,000, coming in with a total of $142,300 as of Thursday.

The result has officials at Brockville General Hospital once again astounded at the generosity of local residents.

"The generosity of the community is always heartening to see," BGH chief executive officer and president Ray Marshall told The Recorder and Times. "There are so many causes out there at this time of year that seem to be doing well, and it's heartwarming and encouraging to see the continued support from the community for the hospital and our equipment needs."

This year's funds will be used to purchase a telepathology system for the hospital. The system uses electronic imaging and information transfer to allow for transmission and sharing of digital images of pathology samples – commonly referred to as "slides."

Marshall said the equipment allows staff to take a slide and digitally transmit the images to garner second opinions.

"It will speed up diagnosis," he said. "It's really focused on those cases where our local pathologist is looking for a second opinion on a particular slide."

He said in many cases it could be used to determine cancer diagnoses, which, by speeding up the process, will lead to the easing of patient anxiety.

"It is focused on being able to provide worried patients quicker response once they biopsy or a sample has been taken," he said.

The annual appeal is a mail-out campaign in which the hospital sends out a request forms to some of its previous donors and other members of the local community.

Each year, the funds raised are used to purchase a key piece or pieces of equipment for the hospital. Marshall said 6,000 letters were sent out to previous donors.

 As of Thursday, 641 people had donated to the 2011 campaign.

Funds raised in the 2010 campaign were used to purchase an orthopedic surgical package that included power equipment, positioning devices, a camera and other arthroscopic instrumentation tools.

steve.pettibone@recorder.ca

Aurora will supply the French Expert Network for the Diagnosis of Rare Otolaryngology (ENT) Cancers (REFCOR) for their medical multi-disciplinary team meetings (MDTMs) and their case reviews by the national pathology expert panel

MONTREAL (CANADA), December 22, 2011 - Aurora Interactive Ltd., the world leader in digital pathology communications, announced today that the company has signed a contract for the supply of its mScope clinical communications platform following a request for proposal from the REFCOR group for the establishment of a national telepathology network to implement: information sharing; case management; and the viewing and analysis of diagnostic pathology images. The system allows for remote diagnostics and collaboration among expert pathologists and clinicians.

"REFCOR’s goal is to improve the management of treatment for patients with rare head and neck cancers including those of the paranasal sinuses, salivary glands, ears and rare cancers of the upper aerodigestive tract. The mScope network will provide us with a communication tool for the submission of cases to the national MDTM or the national pathology expert panel,” said Dr. François Janot of the Gustave Roussy Cancer Institute.

Pierre Le Fevre, President and CEO of Aurora Interactive, said: "We are very proud to have won this contract and to have earned the trust of the REFCOR group's leaders and their partners in this project. We are also very pleased to partner with a project that is at the forefront of the use of digital pathology to advance the science relating to rare head and neck cancers.”

About Aurora Interactive

Aurora Interactive has developed the leading Web-based software platform (mScope) for simplification, productivity and ease of pathology communications.  mScope’s Universal Web Viewer has collaborative tools to view medical slides and images anytime, anywhere, regardless of file format.  The software has four applications to aid digital pathology web based communications needs: mScope Education, mScope Clinical, mScope Research and mScope Universal Viewer. Aurora’s mission is to improve patient outcomes and help members of the medical community achieve their full potential by eliminating the learning, diagnostic and collaborative restrictions imposed by time and space. http://www.aurorainteractive.com  
 

The French Rare Head and Neck Cancer Expert Network (REFCOR)

Created in 2008 under the patronage of the Société Française ORL (French Society of Otolaryngology), REFCOR’s objective is the improved management of medical treatment for patients with rare head and neck cancers. The first four objectives of REFCOR are: The publication of reference national recommendations on the four main types of rare head and neck cancers; The creation of a national database referencing cases and incorporating epidemiological, clinical and anatomic and cytopathology data; The establishment of reference centres including the ability to coordinate medical multi-disciplinary team meetings to review "rare head and neck cancers" at the regional level while providing an efficient network for national collaboration; and the organizing of tumor banks / serum banks / tissue banks, the standardization of methods for the collection and systematic storage of samples taken from targeted patients. REFCOR currently organizes national MDTMs for the most difficult cases and a system of case review by pathologists specializing in  these cancers.

Via FierceMobileHealthcare by Sara Jackson

No doubt a study such as this could show positive savings for "high-risk" pathology cases.

 Comment |  Forward | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn