Clinical Decision Support Tools Strategies And Emerging Technologies An Issue Of The Clinics In Laboratory Medicine

This issue of Clinics in Laboratory Medicine, Guest Edited by Dr. Anand S. Dighe, will focus on Clinical Decision Support, including tools, strategies, and emerging technologies. This issue is one of four issues selected per year by the series Consulting Editor, Milenko Jovan Tanasijevic. Topics include, but are not limited to, The Laboratory’s Role in Clinical Decision Support, Integrating Decision Support into a Utilization Management Program, Decision Support Tools within the Electronic Health Record, Decision Support to Enhance Automated Testing and Laboratory Workflow, Laboratory-based CDS programs, Decision Support in Blood Banking, Decision Support in Molecular Pathology, A Computational Perspective on Decision Support, Emerging Decision Support Techniques, Decision Support and Patient Safety, Decision Support from a Reference laboratory perspective, and Training Aspects of Laboratory Based Decision Support.

This issue of Clinics in Laboratory Medicine will focus on Clinical Pathology and is edited by Geza S. Bodor. Topics include, but are not limited to, Steroid measurement / Salivary cortisol measurement, Protein testing by LCMSMS, LCMSMS in the Clinical Laboratory, Laboratory Standards for Clinical LCMSMS, The need to teach LCMSMS to clinical laboratory scientists, MALDI-TOF in the clinical laboratory, MALDI TOF MS in the clinical microbiology laboratory, LCMSMS method development consideration in clinical laboratory practice, Cancer diagnosis using mass spectrometry, Adulteration and LCMSMS drug testing, Diagnosis of inherited metabolic disorders using LCMSMS, Harmonization of LCMSMS protein assays, Vitamin D testing by LCMSMS versus by immunoassay, Pain management testing by LCMSMS, and Development of FDA approved clinical mass spectrometer.

This issue of Clinics in Laboratory Medicine, guest edited by Dr. Vinay Subhash Mahajan, will focus on Immunology Laboratory Testing. Topics include, but are not limited to, Analysis of proteins and immunoglobulins in the clinical immunology laboratory; Antinuclear antibody tests; Serological diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis; ANCA; Anti-phospholipid antibodies; Diagnostic pitfalls in autoantibody testing; Analysis of the complement pathway; Flow cytometric analysis of immune cell subsets; Testing of cellular immune function in immunodeficiencies; Food allergy testing; Evaluation of the immune response in transplantation; Laboratory testing in the context of biologics and cellular therapies; Testing immune-related adverse-events in cancer immunotherapy; Molecular diagnosis of inherited immune disorders; and Future of immunology lab testing.

This issue of Clinics in Laboratory Medicine, edited by Drs. Julio Delgado and Eszter Lazar-Molnar, will focus on HLA and Disease. Topics include, but are not limited to, The potential impact of NGS in HLA and disease association studies, HLA typing by NGS, HLA Antibody Testing: Evolution and Challenges, Diversity of killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors and disease, Technical Aspects of Crossmatching in Transplantation, HLA Markers in Celiac Disease, HLA Associations in Drug Hypersensitivity Reactions, HLA in BMT, Post-transplant monitoring, HLA epitope matching in transplantation, and Molecular Testing in Post-Transplant Monitoring.

This issue of Clinics in Laboratory Medicine, guest edited by Drs. Nicole V. Tolan and Robert Nerenz, will cover Direct to Consumer Testing: The Role of Laboratory Medicine. This issue is one of four selected each year by our Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Milenko Jovan Tanasijevic. Topics discussed in this issue will include: Health Literacy, Identifying Valuable Tests, Challenges with At-Home and Mail-In Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing, Self-Ordering and Interpretations, American Association for Clinical Chemistry Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing Position Statement, Data Disjunction, Integration of At-Home Testing, Wearable Devices, Oncogene Panels and Risk Calculations, Ethics, and Pharmacy’s Integration and Testing Offered, among others.

This issue of Clinics in Laboratory Medicine, guest edited by James E. Kirby, will focus on Advances and Trends in Clinical Microbiology and take a look at the next 20 years. Topics include, but are not limited to, Rapid susceptibility testing methods; Synergy testing; Serology testing re-imagined; Total Laboratory Automation in Clinical Microbiology; MALDI-TOF; Superbugs of the Future, the Antimicrobial Laboratory Resistance Network, Partnerships between Public Health and the clinical microbiology laboratory; Next generation sequencing, from identification to susceptibility prediction; Distributed microbiology testing; Direct from Sample Identification; Biomarkers - predicting viral versus bacterial infection; PK/PD in the era of emerging multidrug-resistance; Training the next generation of clinical microbiologists; and Pictorial illustration of debate, developments, and controversy in clinical microbiology.

This issue of Clinics in Laboratory Medicine, guest edited by Dr. Indira Guleria, will focus on New Pipeline of Immunoregulatory Molecules and Biomarkers in Transplantation. Topics include, but are not limited to, T Regulatory cells in Stem cells and Solid organ transplantation, Genetic Polymorphism in Cytokines and Costimulatory Molecules in Stem Cell and Solid Organ Transplantation, microRNAs and Transplantation, Role of B Regulatory Cells in Transplant Tolerance, Complement Activation, Biomarkers in Stem Cell Transplantation, Biomarkers of Transplant Tolerance at the Fetomaternal Interface, Signaling molecules in Transplantation and Post-Transplantation Cancer, Donor specific HLA antibodies as Biomarkers of Transplant Rejection, Novel Targets of Immunosuppression in Transplantation, Nanotechnology and Immune therapies in Transplantation, Role of Costimulatory Pathways in Transplant Tolerance, and Microbiota and Immune system and Implications.

The field of Clinical Microbiology is evolving at a rapid pace, perhaps more so than any other arm of laboratory medicine. This can be attributed to new technology, including high throughput gene sequencing, multiplex molecular assays, rapid evolution of antimicrobial resistance, and discovery of new pathogens. In addition, modern medical procedures, such as solid organ and stem cell transplantation, have resulted in an explosion of infections with agents that historically have been considered to be of low virulence. This issue of Clinics in Laboratory Medicine will highlight some of the advances in diagnostic microbiology, including MALDI-TOF MS, pathogen discovery, and personalized antimicrobial chemotherapy. In addition, one of the papers will focus on implementation of new technologies and how to maximize patient impact of these new methods.