CLINICAL PATHOLOGY CONTENT SPECIFICATIONS
LABORATORY ADMINISTRATION AND OPERATIONS

Unannounced inspections by CAP
Automation in the laboratory
Regulatory agencies, accreditation requirements, quality assurance
     new method validation
     method comparisons
     laboratory quality management plan
     specimen collection and handling
     reference ranges and critical value determinations
     publically reported laboratory measures
Updates to CLIA, and other federal regulations
HIPPA
Laboratory Safety
Patient Safety
Critical values; Joint Commission recommendations for reporting
Informatics
IT issues - patient armbands, sample barcoding, laboratory automation
Consultations
Coding and Billing
Basic statistics used in internal QC, PT evaluation, reference range development, etc.
Baysean statistics-sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV
The influence of prevalence on the positive and negative predictive values of assays

 
Example 1: The impact of molecular diagnostics that are not 100% specific for the detection of Neisseria gonorrhoeae in low prevalence scenarios (i.e. the likelihood that a positive result will be false positive result).
 
Example 2: As above, the impact of using the rapid respiratory virus EIA when the prevalence of disease is low (e.g., summertime in Ohio).

Regulatory agencies, accreditation requirements, quality assurance
     new method validation
     method comparisons
     laboratory quality management plan
     specimen collection and handling
     reference ranges and critical value determinations
     publicly reported laboratory measures


This page was last modified on February 13, 2008.