ICYMI: Around the Journals July 2021

AJCPand Lab Medicinejournals publish original research, case studies, and more that is important to pathology and laboratory medicine.

Here are some highlights you may have missed.

In AJCP….

The pandemic disrupted just about every aspect of life, especially education. The authors of this new study reviewed how pandemic-related education disruption may affect pathology manpower across the globe, and identify solutions to mitigate it.

Accurate cancer diagnoses are critical to quality care. A recent study looked at the results of a lab improvement process to help improve access to cancer diagnostics and build capacity for quality and timely laboratory diagnostics in Uganda.

Fraud. Abuse. No, it’s not your next primetime crime drama. Corruption is a serious and widely acknowledged problem in low- and middle-income countries, yet little is known about how it affects the delivery of pathology and laboratory medicine services. A recent review takes the first step toward examining the corruption risks that can impact the lab.

In Laboratory Medicine…

Google: It’s for more than just finding the answer to that trivia question that’s been bothering you for a week. Google searches for clinical symptom keywords have shown to correlate with the number of new weekly patients with COVID-19, according to a new multinational study. Demand for SARS-CoV-2 tests could also be predicted. Read on to find out more.

Are their such things as easy-to-understand regulations? Maybe, but when it comes to regulations for clinical labs in the U.S., complexity is almost standard. This new review looks to improve clarity of LDT regulation to help move innovation forward.

Antibody testing for SARS-CoV-2 has been used as a tool in surveillance and control of the COVID-19 pandemic. But the potential role of antibody testing in the diagnosis of current and past COVID-19 infections is ambiguous. This recent case study shows how a combination of tests can be used to draw better conclusions about a patient’s COVID-19 status.