MORE IN-OFFICE TESTING OK'D FOR CHOLESTEROL.Byline: Jacqueline Stenson Medical Tribune News Service Many more doctors now can provide in-office cholesterol testing instead of having to send blood samples to an outside laboratory, which can delay results and add to patient costs. Under a federal waiver granted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), agency of the U.S. Public Health Service since 1973, with headquarters in Atlanta; it was established in 1946 as the Communicable Disease Center. in Atlanta, the Cholestech Corp. of Hayward, Calif., can offer its in-office cholesterol test to doctors even if they do not maintain office laboratories that meet certain CDC See Control Data, century date change and Back Orifice. CDC - Control Data Corporation regulations. Those regulations, the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) of 1988 are United States federal regulatory standards that apply to all clinical laboratory testing performed on humans in the United States, except clinical trials and basic research. of 1988 (CLIA CLIA Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 Congressional legislation that promulgated quality assurance practices in clinical labs, and required them to measure performance at each step of the testing process from the beginning to the end-point of a '88) - were introduced to reduce inaccuracies in laboratory tests, by increasing quality-control measures and requiring proficiency testing for people who perform tests. Many doctors have argued that the CLIA rules are so restrictive that it takes much time and expense to follow them. As a result, some doctors have shut down their in-office labs and must send all their tests to commercial laboratories. The added cost of this practice usually is passed on to the patient. The Cholestech test was granted a waiver from the rules because the company showed that its test was accurate and easy to use, even by nonmedical staff, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Rosemary Cakes-Martin, a senior health scientist at the CDC. Cholestech's test is the first such in-office cholesterol test to be granted a waiver, she said. |
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