Pathologists Role in Coordinated Care and Managing Patient
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Pathologists’ Role in Coordinated Care and Managing Patient Populations cap. org v. #
The Pathologist’s Role in Coordinated Care and Managing Patient Populations • Experts and consultants in medical test selection. • Specialists in diagnosing disease. • Stewards of key clinical patient data. • Leaders in personalized medicine. © 2011 College of American Pathologists. All rights reserved. 2
Experts in Medical Test Selection Consulting with and relying on pathologists’ expertise for medical test selection will: • Provide guidance to practitioners to ensure correct tests are ordered for diagnosis, prognosis, and monitoring therapy services. • Reduce laboratory overutilization and avoid unnecessary courses of treatment that could adversely affect patient outcomes and increase downstream costs. • Reduce diagnosis costs and downstream disease management costs. • Reduce patient stress and improve patient perceptions of treatment. © 2011 College of American Pathologists. All rights reserved. 3
Specialists in Diagnosing Disease Consulting pathologists on disease diagnosis will: • Enable coordination with key effectors in ensuring quality, safety, value and lower costs throughout the health system. • Tap into pathologists’ expertise as interpreters of increasingly sophisticated laboratory tests. • Reduce the time needed to begin appropriate treatment and minimize patient stress. • Ensure each diagnosis carries the specificity needed to inform proper treatment. • Reduce downstream costs by selecting the right treatment sooner. © 2011 College of American Pathologists. All rights reserved. 4
Stewards of Key Clinical Patient Data • 70% of medical decisions are based on information generated by laboratory tests and the clinical lab is the first to obtain this data. • Clinical data management is a core competency of pathologists who, as integrative coordinators of clinical laboratory data, can employ pattern recognition, risk factor identification, other clinical judgments and utilization observations including peer comparisons to assist with chronic disease management such as cancer and overall population management. • Pathologists manage the vast amounts of key clinical patient data needed to report on quality measures and improve population management. © 2011 College of American Pathologists. All rights reserved. 5
Leaders in Personalized Medicine • Pathologists are uniquely qualified to determine the clinical value of complex (and costly) tests. • Pathologists are uniquely qualified to interpret the results of genomic and other molecular tests that can predict a patient’s predisposition toward a disease, and yield better results in managing a disease. • Pathologists are at the forefront of advancing personalized medicine with new methods of molecular and genetic analysis for disease diagnosis and management. © 2011 College of American Pathologists. All rights reserved. 6
Pathologists can Empower Physician Practices Pathologists can help physician practices effectively manage their patient populations by: • Patient registry and laboratory data management. • Interpretation of laboratory tests and clinical decision-making. • Tracking and compliance. • Patient education and empowerment. © 2011 College of American Pathologists. All rights reserved. 7
