Archives of pathology & laboratory medicine
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Arch. Pathol. Lab. Med. · Feb 2020
Diversion Principle Reduces Skin Flora Contamination Rates in a Community Hospital.
Blood culture contamination is a common problem faced by medical centers and leads to significant cost. A possible method to reduce contamination is to discard the initial aliquot of blood, which contains skin and bacteria. ⋯ By using this simple diversion method, we were able to improve blood culture contamination rates for our emergency department and inpatients while incurring no added cost to the procedure.
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Arch. Pathol. Lab. Med. · Feb 2020
Complete Digital Pathology for Routine Histopathology Diagnosis in a Multicenter Hospital Network.
Complete digital pathology and whole slide imaging for routine histopathology diagnosis is currently in use in few laboratories worldwide. Granada University Hospitals, Spain, which comprises 4 hospitals, adopted full digital pathology for primary histopathology diagnosis in 2016. ⋯ Digital pathology is an adequate medium for primary histopathology diagnosis. Successful digitization relies on existing sample tracking and integration of the information technology infrastructure. Rapid and reliable scanning at ×40 equivalent was key to the transition to a fully digital workflow. Digital pathology resulted in efficiency gains in the preanalytical and analytical phases, and created the basis for computational pathology: the use of computer-assisted tools to aid diagnosis.