In the US, millions of 25-OH-D tests have been performed in last few years. Testing has increased at the rate of 80% to 90% per year and has overwhelmed the clinical laboratories. Vitamin D deficiency is an important concern, but assays for serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D (25-OH-D), the accepted marker ...(Read More)

Many of you will have seen or heard of the recent appearance of IBM's Watson computer as a contestant on Jeopardy. The first show aired on February 14th, 2011 -- the 65th anniversary of the debut of ENIAC. The performance of Watson on Jeopardy was fantastic. The computational challenge was enormous...(Read More)

Most clinicians rely on TSH to screen for thyroid disease, especially hypothyroidism (1). As the methods for TSH have improved, the number of cases with abnormal TSH values, but minimal symptoms has increased (2). Most physicians have relied on a TSH range of 0.3 to 5.0 mU/L; but the American Assoc...(Read More)

Glucose meter accuracy criteria as defined in ISO 15197 (1) and CLSI guidelines require that for glucose values above 75 mg/dL, 95% of glucose meter results be within 20% of the reference glucose value. There has been growing momentum towards revision of these guidelines, primarily because of the c...(Read More)