CAP ’14: Pathologists Securing a Seat at the Table

At CAP’14 last week, I was really struck by how Pathology is coming to terms with the current healthcare paradigm. There was a common theme to sessions like “The Visible Pathologist,” “Pathologists Are Social: Leveraging Social Media” and “Tumor Board: Enhancing the Story to Market Yourself and Your Practice. In each case, the discussion was about how to elevate the pathologist’s role to be a central figure in advancing improvement in healthcare delivery and outcomes.

Pathology and diagnostics are at the forefront of medical innovation, whether they are recognized as such or not. It’s widely understood that although they only comprise less than 2% of costs, diagnostics influence 60-70% of health care decision-making. Numerous statistics show the steep cost of failing to utilize diagnostics, such as the one linking low diagnostic compliance for four diseases to 56,200 avoidable adverse health events, nearly 34,000 avoidable deaths, and nearly $900 million in avoidable health care costs. 

I’d argue the increased demands on labs and pathology groups to develop better interoperability and connectivity with other systems and entities is part of the push to take better advantage of the rich information available to diagnostics providers. Repositories, meaningful use initiatives, value-based pricing and patient-centered coordinated care programs all seek to leverage clinical, demographic, and financial data as well as diagnostic expertise to improve outcomes and care while reducing cost.

The industry already gets diagnostics’ importance. Now the task is for diagnostics to recognize for itself its pivotal role in the changing healthcare paradigm, and to act accordingly. Providers need the technological foundation that will enable them to cost-effectively deliver value-added information and to collaborate with other healthcare stakeholders to ensure appropriate action is taken. We like to say, if you’re not at the healthcare optimization table, you’re going to be on it.

It was great to see all the different ways pathologists are working to ensure a seat at the table, rather than allowing themselves to become an item on the menu.