In view of cut-throat vendor marketing techniques arising since about 2000, let me state that we review most of our testing techniques periodically. Information brought to our attention may prompt a review; cost pressures may prompt a review. Just because we perform a review gives no competing sales rep the right to rumor that we are about to switch to their method. Such rumors should be presumed to be an outright lie!

Since this is our pathology group website, the following pages (as links from this page) are obviously the opinion of our group and/or its decision makers and not the same as an official publication in an official medical or scientific journal or an official opinion of a medical specialty organization. It is our "why so?" to our patients & clients & staff who may be aware that there is controversy in things medical. Our clients are: predominantly our hospital, the 150 or so physicians of the hospital's MSO (and additionally also the nurse practitioners and midwives of the MSO), some non-MSO physician practices, and the patients of all of these professionals, and with our "catchment area corresponding with the Lexington County Health Services District (LCHSD). And this fits with our over-all approach to Pathology & Laboratory Medicine.

There is controversy in the medical arena between schools of professional thought on practically every topic. There are heated marketing campaigns between competing product vendors (often with positive and negative "pointing" to the FDA and to professional society opinions). Those of us "on the front lines" are often caused to make choices prior to any unanimity of professional opinion as to any given issue (such unanimity turns out to be very rare, indeed). So, we do the best that we can; and we have had to make many 100s of various controversial choices in behalf of clients in a group's career which began in late 1971! 

Beginning in 2000, we found that commercial marketing techniques had  made it more difficult to assure clinical physicians of the rational of our choice by means of simple professional conversations based on local "point of service" relationships rich in ethical trust. Having become acquainted with website construction, we began to express ourselves to our own busy pathology group within our own website (as sort of a forerunner of the "web log" or "blog"). As controversy arose and swirled on one particular issue some years ago, we saw the need to hold forth reasoned written real-time opinion to our clients. America being a free nation with citizens guaranteed the right to free speech, and in order to have the information readily available to any of our clients (24/7/365), we could not change our website to a subscription-only or password-protected website.

 So, for our clients only, here are just a few examples of the controversial decisions (just in anatomical pathology) we've made.  None of  this website is for the use of non-clients trying to make their own independent decisions because (1) they don't know anything about us (by what authority are "we"?), and (2) this is not a website for unbiased comparisons. We are extremely biased toward the needs of our particular clients (as well as we have been able to determine and/or foresee those needs) under our medical community's particular set of circumstances at any given point in time.