[Histonet] non-gyn cytology specimens

[Bill Blank]

At 5:22 PM +0000 2/25/04, Marshall Terry Dr,
	Consultant Histopathologist wrote:
>*Furthermore*, as Spriggs insisted long ago, it does nothing that 
>can't be done easier in a conventional centrifuge with proper 
>technique.
>
>Enter ThinPrep - ah, bliss.

Agreed Terry, but for a small lab ThinPrep is too expensive unless 
one is also using it for PAPs. Even then it may be too expensive 
considering the cost of small numbers of kits.

We do about 150-200 non PAP cytologies a year and use old fashioned, 
conventional techniques. Our major problem is not with our labs 
technical considerations, but getting appropriately fixed material 
from the hospitals and doctors offices.

Cytec is now approaching smaller labs like mine and is giving an 
instrument ($54,000) for use for a 3 year contract for a given number 
of kits per year. The PAP kits cost more (I presume) at $10 per kit, 
but it still made economic sense for me. Besides, my Gyns were 
demanding it and I would have lost tissue accounts if I did not 
provide it.

I have not yet determined yet if the non-gyn kits will make sense economically.
-- 
_______________
Bill Blank, MD
Heartland Lab, Inc