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Twin Cities Dermatopathology serves physicians and patients
nationwide through its specialized dermatopathology laboratory
in Minnesota. When the facility selected PowerPath in 1997, it
did so knowing that PowerPath would be able to best meet its
needs in the area of dermatopathology. “By using the
Dermatopathology Resulting Module, we have experienced
significant improvement in the amount of time it takes to result
a dermatopathology case,” says Lisa Coombe, business
administrator.
Managing Specialized Cases
In the large metropolitan area of Twin Cities, the lab stays
busy performing gross and microscopic examinations of samples of
tissue from the skin. With three pathologists on site, the case
volume is high and laboratory information system has to be able
to handle the complexities of dermatopathology. Coombe, who has
been with the laboratory since its inception in 1990, explains:
“With PowerPath we were able to customize the Dermatopathology
Dictionary to organize information in a way that makes the most
sense for our cases. This flexibility is imperative.”
Report Generation & Modification
The Dermatopathology Resulting Module permits the diagnostician
to enter a code for each specimen covered in the report based on
items within the dictionary. Based on these entries, PowerPath
enters the appropriate text and ICD9-code, and incorporates it
into the patient report according to custom report templates.
“Once the report is generated, I can quickly modify the report
to augment specimen descriptions and make other edits if
necessary,” says Valda N. Kaye, M.D., a pathologist and owner of
Twin Cities Dermatopathology. “We have worked with other A/P
systems in the past, but having specialized dermatopathology
resulting with PowerPath saves us the most time,” she adds.
Special Requirements
Perhaps one of the best features of this module is that it
requires no additional hardware or software installation. “The
module works as an add-on to PowerPath, which means that any
workstation can be used to prepare or correct a report with
dermatopathology findings as long as the module is active,”
Coombe explains. |
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