It’s no secret that pathologists and laboratory teams work collaboratively throughout the health care environment to improve patient care, maintain quality standards, and contain costs. This free webinar will focus on these collaborative contributions, providing participants with specific examples they can share with their organizations’ leaders and other stakeholders, including fellow clinicians.

Register now to learn practical specifics that demonstrate the valuable role of the pathologist and the laboratory as the starting point for integrated care delivery, quality, and cost control. Take away examples for participation, measurement, and improvement that are transferrable to other parts of the organization.

The first screening test for Down syndrome was "How old are you?", a question based on the known association between maternal age and Down syndrome. Since then, combinations of first and second trimester biochemical and biophysical markers have improved screening performance. In 2012, an estimated 70% of pregnancies in the United States were screened for Down syndrome and other common aneuploidies using these phenotypic markers. The finding of circulating cell free (ccf) DNA in maternal plasma, coupled with next generation sequencing technology has allowed, for the first time, the development of a more accurate genotype-based screening test.

This presentation will briefly review history of prenatal screening and diagnosis, document key discoveries of ccf DNA, describe the underlying DNA test methodologies, summarize in-house and external clinical validation trials, assess relevant professional recommendations and summarize current practices. Proof of concept studies for future prenatal applications for ccf DNA will also examined.

CAP’s Economic Affairs Committee experts will advise you on how to earn 2014 Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) incentives and prevent future Medicare penalties. The webinar is free to CAP members.

As a result of CAP’s advocacy, CMS has promised not to penalize pathologists who have no PQRS measures that apply to their practice. But to confirm that you’re eligible for this exemption, you must act. The webinar will discuss who is and is not at risk of the PQRS penalties, as well as how to confirm which PQRS measures apply to your practice. Additional topics include:

• Group Practice Reporting and the GPRO web interface
• Criteria and registration for the group reporting option
• Working with the CMS Help Desk (How and Why?)
• Pros and cons of registries

IHC testing is an essential component of the pathologic evaluation of many specimens and increasingly provides key information that helps determine how patients are treated. As with any clinical test, laboratories must validate all IHC assays before they are used on patient specimens.

Come listen to the science behind the evidence-based recommendations for validation as they can provide the framework for the validation of molecular and genomic-based assays.