Oh Canada: Hospital labs need major fix, medical groups say

The Canadian Globe and Mail reports: Hospital labs need major fix, medical groups say.

"Major Canadian medical organizations and pathologists from the country's largest hospitals are calling for an immediate overhaul of the way laboratories handle medical tests to prevent more patients from dying unnecessarily.

"Their urgent call for action is being issued in the wake of a breast cancer screening scandal in St. John's that is the subject of judicial inquiry set to begin this week.

"Critical shortages of staff, inconsistent methods of interpretation and the absence of provincial or national standards are compromising the ability of some pathologists in labs across the country to catch mistakes or recognize incorrect diagnoses before it's too late, according to physicians leading the charge for change.

This is a key issue worldwide; standardizing on a rigorous quantitative application to perform IHC scoring would be a great step in the right direction.

Comments

[Kiran]

The accuracy of diagnosis seems to be a concern in other modalities too. Here's a link to performance of MRI as a diagnostic tool for breast cancer in the UK.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7312793.stm