Time, Money, and Lives Blog

Can you believe it's almost the end of the year?!  Soon the holidays will be over and it will be time to get back to work dictating cases. You say, "Surgical, one zero," accession number S-20-00010 opens up, and it's business as usual.  Like many programs, VoiceOver adapts to the new year, so going forward with new cases won't require any additional steps. If, however, you want to open and dictate a case from 2019, you will need to issue a different command.

This brief blog explains how these commands work and what you need to say in order to open up the correct accession number for the correct year.

The College of American Pathologists Cancer Protocols have become the standard in cancer reporting. According to their website, “For more than 20 years, the CAP cancer protocols have served as a resource and reference for complete reporting of malignant tumors, including current American Joint Committee on Cancer staging.” The CAP eCC (electronic Cancer Checklists) is the electronic version of these protocols, allowing pathologists to implement them into their reporting workflow.

Microsoft is discontinuing support for Windows 7. Here's what you need to know:

Back in January of 2015, many panicked about losing their Windows 7 support from Microsoft. Luckily, the powers that be extended that deadline to January 2020, but now that date is looming over us like a scary, HIPAA violation-filled cloud. Microsoft released a statement saying that “any users or businesses who are running [Windows 7] are more susceptible to cyber attacks.”

What does that mean for hospitals who haven’t upgraded to Windows 8 or 10 yet? Well, it means you need to tread lightly and carry a big security stick.

Most of us probably don’t pay much attention, but we use ‘templates’ in our everyday life.  We are using them so much, in fact, that our devices are even starting to figure out what we are going to say/type next.  For instance, when I go to fill out a form in Google and I start to type my name, Google will try to auto populate the other fields for address, email, phone number, etc.  Google knows that I have used this information many times before and has essentially created a template for me.  Of course the world of Pathology is much more complex than filling in fields for name and address, but there are still so many areas where you are likely saying the same or very similar phrases again and again.

The benefits of big data in healthcare have already been proven around the world. In fact, the collection and analysis of data is the fastest growing trend in healthcare. Data collected from across multiple organizations within a population can be used to study trends and develop strategies geared toward the most effective treatment and prevention of disease. With this in mind, the California Department of Public Health created the California Cancer Registry (CCR) to gather data and analyze the various factors affecting cancer risk. The California State Assembly then passed a law requiring Pathologists to report all cancer diagnoses to the CCR using the College of American Pathologists' protocols. The law goes into effect Jan 1, 2019.

"But wait!" You might be thinking, "I don't practice in California; why should I care about their laws and registries?"