Tag Archives: genomics

Trade group’s dispute with FDA highlights need to watch for report revisions

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Photo: Lori Greig via Flickr

Photo: Lori Greig via Flickr

The nation’s clinical laboratories have pushed back hard against a proposal by U.S. Food and Drug Administration in October 2014 that would regulate laboratory developed tests. More than a year later, the disagreement became more heated when the Association of Molecular Pathology (AMP) accused the FDA of fabricating examples in a November report on LDTs.

In the report, “The Public Health Evidence for FDA Oversight of Laboratory Developed Tests: 20 Case Studies,” the agency cited 20 examples of problematic LDTs, saying, “…these products may have caused or have caused actual harm to patients.” We covered this report in a blog post earlier this month.

But that’s just the beginning of the story, as Allison Proffitt, editorial director of BioITWorld, found. Continue reading →

Joseph Burns (@jburns18), an independent journalist who resides in Brewster, Massachusetts, is AHCJ’s topic leader on health reform. He welcomes questions and suggestions and tip sheets at joseph@healthjournalism.org.

A problem with precision medicine: It’s not quite precise – at least not yet

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At a conference last year, Michael Laposata, M.D., Ph.D., one of the nation’s best known pathologists, explained how clinical laboratories could deliver more value to patients, physicians, and health insurers. To do so, pathologists and laboratory scientists need to provide more detailed explanations about lab test results because even physicians who order genetic and molecular tests are often confused about the results, said Laposata, chairman of the Department of Pathology at the University of Texas Medical Branch.

When he explains test results to ordering physicians, he frequently refers to an “allele” which is one of two or more versions of a gene, he said. When he does, physicians sometimes ask, “What’s an allele?”

His anecdote is telling following President Obama’s announcement last month that he recommended spending $215 million on the precision medicine initiative. The announcement was correctly hailed as an important and needed investment in medical technology. “Precision medicine” is described by the National Institutes of Health as “an emerging approach for disease treatment and prevention that takes into account individual variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle for each person.” Continue reading →

Joseph Burns (@jburns18), an independent journalist who resides in Brewster, Massachusetts, is AHCJ’s topic leader on health reform. He welcomes questions and suggestions and tip sheets at joseph@healthjournalism.org.