Quality goals for diagnostic and interventional invasive laboratories can be difficult to measure effectively. In the lab, multiple factors can impact measurements and outcomes. Administrators typically focus on driving down costs while clinicians tend to concentrate on patient outcomes.

The English language uses the Latin alphabet with 26 letters and a numeric system with 10 numerals. These alphanumeric symbols (letters and numerals) work well most of the time when used to communicate information. However, problems may arise during written or electronic communication because of similarities in appearance of the alphanumeric symbols we use.

Essentially all medical devices used in hospitals come with a user instruction manual, commonly called Instructions for Use (IFU) or Directions for Use. Typically an IFU includes basic, operational “how to” information as well as pages of warnings, cautions, and other general or device-specific information beyond simply how to operate the device. 

Collecting and analyzing clinical data to measure performance is no simple task for many physician practices, but is becoming increasingly critical as government and commercial payers shift to value-based payment contracts and programs (Block, 2013).

Helen Riess, MD, associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard University and director of the Empathy and Relational Science Program at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), has devoted her career to teaching and research in the art and science of the patient-doctor relationship. 

To recognize the contributions of Ernest Amory Codman, MD, FACS (1869-1940), to American surgery and to patient care as a whole, a memorial headstone has been placed at his previously unmarked gravesite in the historic Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.