Clinical laboratory utilization management and improved healthcare performance

Abstract

Laboratory medicine is at a watershed moment when automation and other advances have improved efficiency and accuracy to the point that value-adding is essential if pathology is not to be relegated to a “support service”. Advances in pathology informatics have facilitated the emergence of utilization management as one of the first ways that clinical laboratories can demonstrate a concrete impact on healthcare performance. The tools of pathology informatics combined with the emergence of large clinical test result datasets have also enabled new initiatives in precision medicine and biorepositories. These activities are self-reinforcing as efficiency gains realized through utilization management may enable the investments necessary to leverage opportunities in precision medicine and biorepositories.

Keywords:

• Utilization management
• biorepository
• laboratory information system
• pathology informatics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by Canadian Institutes of Health Research [grant number RN254781-333204].