A $12.2 million grant from National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) will establish a new national network for sharing information between scientists, which has been described as "Facebook for scientists." The funding for this effort comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The project's lead organization is the University of Florida; other participants are Cornell University, Washington University, Weill Cornell Medical College, Indiana University, Scripps Research... Read Full Story

Check out Mayachitra imago.  Started using this a few weeks ago and haven't used all the features but some nice image management features pathologists with large image files may like.  Mayachitra imago is an image management tool designed for microscopic images. imago can be thought of as an "iPhoto for Scientists", but with significantly more capabilities. imago has many special features to help scientists to easily manage, organize, and analyze a large collection of images. imago's unifi... Read Full Story

AFP (11/5) reports, "The X-ray was on Wednesday named the most important modern scientific achievement in a poll conducted for the Science Museum" in London. The poll included "nearly 50,000 members of the public," who voted "on 10 of the greatest achievements in science, technology, and engineering selected by the museum curators."   "Penicillin came second, followed by the DNA double helix, the Apollo 10 capsule, the V2 rocket engine, Stephenson's Rocket, the Pilot ACE (one of the first c... Read Full Story

If you called the appointment line for H1N1 vaccination at Mayo Clinic here in Rochester on Wednesday morning, you may have received a message like, "Please hold for the next available representative." On Tuesday, Mayo announced that it would be taking appointments for H1N1 vaccination clinics for children and pregnant women. And when the phone lines opened at 7 a.m. on Wednesday, the response was astonishing. In the first two hours, more than 200,000 calls were made to the posted number. In ... Read Full Story

By: Ron Rajecki InfoTech Bulletin   Patients are willing to use e-mail and physicians’ websites to communicate with their doctors in an effort to save time, as long as they do not have to pay for the ability, according to results of a survey recently released by Lightspeed Research. More than half of the 1,000 respondents said they would be willing to use e-mail for a variety of interactions with their physicians, including receiving routine test results (59 percent), requesting repeat ... Read Full Story

WebMD (10/27, Doheny) reported that "colonoscopy is getting more accurate, thanks to better techniques and equipment." For example, Baylor investigators evaluated "a disposable device that is passed through the instrument channel of a standard colonoscope, called the Third Eye Retroscope (TER), which gives physicians a better look at the lesions they may miss with standard screening equipment." Daniel C. DeMarco, MD, explained the "new technique gave us a 13 percent improved diagnostic yield.... Read Full Story

Medscape (10/26, Beals) reported, "Leaders in human genetics looked to the future of personalized medicine and ways to translate genetics research into healthcare practice" during a medical conference panel discussion. Specifically, investigators "described advances in prevention, diagnosis, and treatment, and the genetic aspects of risk-taking behavior, medication effects, and patient response to genetic test results." Still, a "serious issue in genetic testing" persists: the "worried well.... Read Full Story

By guest author Amanda Lowe of Digital Pathology Consultants, LLC The FDA Hematology and Pathology devices advisory panel, who discussed whole slide imaging (WSI) and its use for primary diagnosis in surgical pathology last week, will use knowledge learned from FDA regulation of digital radiology to lay the foundation for regulation of WSI systems.    With optical microscopy in use for over 400 years, the practice today of diagnosis with an optical microscope is not regulated by t... Read Full Story

By guest author Amanda Lowe of Digital Pathology Consultants, LLC The FDA Hematology and Pathology devices advisory panel meeting, open to the public and being held in Gaithersburg, Maryland, began this morning to discuss Whole Slide Imaging (WSI) and its implications when used for primary diagnosis of surgical pathology.  In the audience were digital pathology industry professionals and advocates from all over the country who convened to hear industry guest speakers, FDA personnel, and the a... Read Full Story

Michael Laposata, MD, PhD, FASCP, Professor of Pathology and Medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and Pathologist-in-Chief and Director of Clinical Laboratories at Vanderbilt University Hospital, exhorts laboratory professionals to go beyond the performance of the laboratory test to help improve test ordering and interpretation.View the address on YouTube here.   Read Full Story