Evaluating test utilization for anemia during pregnancy.

Objective: To evaluate, using longitudinal laboratory data, potential care gaps, and the prevalence of anemia in pregnant women residing in New Mexico, USA.

Methods: A total of 985 pregnant women aged 13-60 were included from December 1, 2018 to December 1, 2019. Parameters included frequency of CBC, iron studies, reticulocyte panel, prevalence of anemia, iron deficiency anemia (IDA), iron deficiency (ID), anemia change throughout pregnancy, and ICD-10 codes utilization.

Leveraging longitudinal clinical laboratory results to improve prenatal care.

Objectives: To assess the impact of providing laboratory-generated near-real-time clinical insights for pregnant Medicaid members to managed care organization (MCO) care coordinators.

Study Design: A prospective, nonrandomized feasibility study was conducted over 11 months to examine the benefits of laboratory-generated clinical insights on prenatal care quality metrics and clinical outcomes. Measures included early identification of pregnancy and births to facilitate care, care gaps with prenatal laboratory testing, emergency department (ED) visits, preterm births, and neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) admissions and length of stay.

The Value of Laboratory Information Augmenting a Managed Care Organization's Comprehensive Diabetes Care Efforts in New Mexico.

Background: The National Committee on Quality Assurance's Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set on Comprehensive Diabetes Care requires patients with diabetes obtain a hemoglobin A1c (Hb A1c) and urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR) test every year. To improve these measures, managed care organizations (MCOs) rely on claim and prescription data to identify members for care management. TriCore Reference Laboratories collaborated with Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Mexico (BCBSNM) to determine if laboratory information would augment BCBSNM's diabetes care management services.

Severe iron deficiency anemia and lice infestation.

Background: Lice infestation is a commonly encountered disorder in emergency medicine. The louse survives from a blood meal from its host; hence, iron deficiency anemia is a theoretic possibility. A limited number of reports of severe iron deficiency anemia have appeared in the veterinary literature, but a thorough review of the medical literature did not reveal a single instance in human beings.

Human genome sequencing using unchained base reads on self-assembling DNA nanoarrays.

Genome sequencing of large numbers of individuals promises to advance the understanding, treatment, and prevention of human diseases, among other applications. We describe a genome sequencing platform that achieves efficient imaging and low reagent consumption with combinatorial probe anchor ligation chemistry to independently assay each base from patterned nanoarrays of self-assembling DNA nanoballs. We sequenced three human genomes with this platform, generating an average of 45- to 87-fold coverage per genome and identifying 3.