Advanced diagnostics, redefined

Offering increased sensitivity and improved accuracy, MayoComplete next-generation testing ensures health care providers understand the distinctive genetic features of their patients’ cancer to make informed decisions to guide their care.

One of the best partners to move specimens to the hospital testing laboratory is a reliable courier service. Courier employees interact regularly with hospital outreach clients and are a valuable asset in representing the hospital brand. Therefore, an effective partnership with the courier is essential to creating an effective outreach program and a positive patient experience.

Ed Garber spent months in physical and neurological decline while a cohort of care providers and specialists searched for the root cause of his symptoms. That search for answers ended after testing by Mayo Clinic Laboratories gave them the confirmatory diagnosis they needed.

In this episode of the "Leveraging the Laboratory" podcast, host Jane Hermansen, outreach manager at Mayo Clinic Laboratories, discusses courier options and logistics with outreach colleagues Brianne Newton and Ellen Dijkman Dulkes. They highlight what needs to be considered when choosing a courier service and how to leverage the courier partnership so it adds value to your outreach lab.

Utilizing testing capabilities of two separate laboratory facilities, Mayo Clinic Laboratories’ new serotonin release assay (SRA) is a gold-standard test supported by decades of clinical hematopathologic experience and advanced mass spectrometry testing.

An effective laboratory outreach program can unlock a wide array of benefits for a health system and its laboratory. Every day, hospital laboratories struggle for dollars to meet the challenges of decreasing reimbursement and rising costs. How are they expected to survive (or possibly even thrive)? That is where laboratory outreach can make a difference. In outreach, a laboratory’s services become externally focused rather than only concentrating on the patients in hospital beds. It is the opposite of traditional lab medicine — it is entrepreneurial, intentional, and effective.

Since overcoming a life-threatening diagnosis five years ago, Jim Smith has embraced life. But each time he travels to Mayo Clinic for follow-up laboratory testing, a well of emotions rises up to remind him of life’s fragility. Thankfully, through streamlined, accurate testing and top-notch clinical care, those feelings are generally short-lived.

In the inaugural episode of the "Leveraging the Laboratory" podcast, host Jane Hermansen, outreach manager at Mayo Clinic Laboratories, is joined by outreach colleagues Brianne Newton and Ellen Dijkman Dulkes. They discuss their laboratory backgrounds, the history and importance of laboratory outreach, and how their work can support the growth of hospital laboratories.

In a groundbreaking study, Mayo Clinic investigators have developed a multiomic molecular method to predict clinical COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) outcomes better than traditional cytokines. Using a machine-learning-based prediction model, the team identified 102 biomarkers, which include several novel cytokines and other proteins, lipids, and metabolites. The discovery may help clinicians reliably predict a more severe course of COVID-19 before the patient gets sick enough to be hospitalized. Until now, there have been no biomarkers that can reliably predict which patients are more likely to have severe illness.

Two years ago, when 29-year-old Meckenzie Tinaglia experienced a series of seizure-like events shortly after a cardiac ablation procedure, she knew her heart was to blame. Her local providers, however, weren’t convinced. If not for Mayo Clinic remote cardiac monitoring and the data it provided about Meckenzie’s potentially fatal arrythmia, the busy wife and young mother might not have survived.

By collaborating with Mayo Clinic Laboratories, Morris Hospital & Healthcare Center has been able to expand complex and specialized lab testing in the communities they serve.

In Mayo Clinic’s Advanced Diagnostics Laboratory, there are dozens of projects underway at once to develop new technologies, discover novel findings, validate new tests, and support physicians in providing advanced patient care. For example, researchers are using phage immunoprecipitation sequencing (PhIP-Seq) to discover new serological biomarkers for autoimmune diseases. In a recent study using PhIP-Seq, Mayo Clinic researchers discovered a previously unknown antibody marker for immune-mediated rippling muscle disease (iRMD). This finding will support testing options and accurate diagnosis of iRMD, helping physicians treat patients with iRMD and restore their quality of life.