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The CC Clinical Pathology Department was recently renamed the Department of Laboratory Medicine.
“The new name better reflects the mission of our department,” said Dr. Thomas Fleisher, department chief. “It also helps to better align us with institutions outside of the NIH, thereby making it easier for our patients.”
According to Dr. Fleisher, there is a trend in academic medical centers to use the term “laboratory medicine” to describe the services provided by the department. These include chemistry, hematology, immunology, microbiology, as well as phlebotomy services.
So for patients especially, who were often confused between the Clinical Pathology Department (which looks at a patient’s blood and other body fluids) and the NCI Laboratory of Pathology (which predominately looks at patient’s tissue samples), this name change will hopefully provide a much clearer distinction, said Dr. Fleisher.
“We noted that it was often confusing to outsiders and our patients who partner with us in our research,” said Dr. Fleisher. “We hope this will help to alleviate confusion and we can continue to work towards expanding the services that our department provides.”
One recent expansion has been the electronic edition of the ClinPath/DTM Guide last published in 1998. This electronic edition is updated monthly and includes several hundred updates each year.
“We encourage staff to use the website rather than the outdated guides,” said Peggy Spina, lab manager. “This new resource is much more effective in providing crucial information to the people who request the almost 900,000 lab tests/panels done by our department each year.”
The website also includes a search engine of all laboratory tests provided by the department, as well as general information about laboratory services.