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<div style="float: left; margin: 0.5em 0.9em 0.4em 0em;">[[File:US-DeptOfHHS-Logo.svg|180px]]</div>
<div style="float: left; margin: 0.5em 0.9em 0.4em 0em;">[[File:Johannes Cordua Arzt in seinem Studierzimmer.jpg|160px]]</div>
The '''[[United States Department of Health and Human Services]]''' ('''HHS'''), also known as the '''Health Department''', is a cabinet-level department of the Federal government of the United States with the goal of protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. Its motto is "Improving the health, safety, and well-being of America". Before the separate federal Department of Education was created in 1979, it was called the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW).
A '''[[Physician office laboratory]]''' ('''POL''') is a physician-, partnership-, or group-maintained [[laboratory]] that performs diagnostic tests or examines specimens in order to diagnose, prevent, and/or treat a disease or impairment in a patient as part of the physician practice. The POL shows up in primary care physician offices as well as the offices of specialists like urologists, hematologists, gynecologists, and endocrinologists. In many countries like the United States, the physician office laboratory is considered a [[clinical laboratory]] and is thus regulated by federal, state, and/or local laws affecting such laboratories.


HHS is administered by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, who is appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. The United States Public Health Service (PHS) is the main division of the HHS and is led by the Assistant Secretary for Health. The current Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius is the Vice-Chair of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. The Department of Health and Human Services is a member of the Council, which is dedicated to preventing and ending homelessness in America.
The workflow of a POL is similar to other clinical labs; the difference in workflows mostly comes down to the time spent in transporting the specimen to an outside lab and waiting for the processing. The in-office lab saves time in those parts of the process. Potential benefits of a POL include quicker access to test results for the clinician, greater efficiency of the clinical workflow, cheaper testing, and greater patient comfort and happiness. Potential disadvantages include the physician office being the only point-of-access, patients not feeling comfortable about the physician's office being the central repository of information, and the cost of meeting compliance requirements for local, state, and federal regulations. ('''[[Physician office laboratory|Full article...]]''')<br />
 
As of May 2013, CMS administers 115 programs over 11 operating divisions, including the [[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]] (CDC), the [[Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services]] (CMS), and the [[National Institutes of Health]] (NIH). ('''[[United States Department of Health and Human Services|Full article...]]''')<br />
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''Recently featured'': [[Bioimage informatics]], [[Biobank]], [[Translational research]]
''Recently featured'': [[United States Department of Health and Human Services]], [[Bioimage informatics]], [[Biobank]]

Revision as of 16:12, 22 September 2014

Johannes Cordua Arzt in seinem Studierzimmer.jpg

A Physician office laboratory (POL) is a physician-, partnership-, or group-maintained laboratory that performs diagnostic tests or examines specimens in order to diagnose, prevent, and/or treat a disease or impairment in a patient as part of the physician practice. The POL shows up in primary care physician offices as well as the offices of specialists like urologists, hematologists, gynecologists, and endocrinologists. In many countries like the United States, the physician office laboratory is considered a clinical laboratory and is thus regulated by federal, state, and/or local laws affecting such laboratories.

The workflow of a POL is similar to other clinical labs; the difference in workflows mostly comes down to the time spent in transporting the specimen to an outside lab and waiting for the processing. The in-office lab saves time in those parts of the process. Potential benefits of a POL include quicker access to test results for the clinician, greater efficiency of the clinical workflow, cheaper testing, and greater patient comfort and happiness. Potential disadvantages include the physician office being the only point-of-access, patients not feeling comfortable about the physician's office being the central repository of information, and the cost of meeting compliance requirements for local, state, and federal regulations. (Full article...)

Recently featured: United States Department of Health and Human Services, Bioimage informatics, Biobank