Choosing the right laboratory: A critical aspect of medical care

Expertly handled laboratory samples with timely results provided to clinicians is are a critical aspect of medical diagnosis and treatment. And while your involvement as the patient ends after a sample is collected, the work for laboratory professionals is just beginning.

The skilled, licensed personnel of UHS’ pathology and laboratory medicine team – including board-certified pathologists in several subspecialities, licensed medical technologists, medical laboratory technicians, histotechnologists, and cytotechnologists – process samples and provide the results to physicians and surgeons to aid in accurate diagnosis and treatment planning. Accredited by the New York State Department of Health and/or the College of American Pathologists, UHS laboratories have their state-of-the-art equipment updated every five to seven years.

The subspecialty certifications each UHS pathologist holds mean that patient samples are expertly reviewed, and that ordering clinicians receive accurate, granular results that guide effective treatment recommendations. This deep expertise is reflected in the recent selection of UHS pathologist Jagmohan Sidhu, MD, to present at the 22nd annual meeting of the European Association for Haematopathology/Society for Hematopathology (United States and Canadian Society) in Dubrovnik, Croatia, the largest annual gathering of hematopathologists from all over the world. “Out of approximately 400 submissions for lymphoma sessions, I was one of 40 selected presenters, and was the only pathologist not from a university hospital, which is the case almost every time I present at international conferences. UHS is well-known in the international hematopathology world because of my presentations at these conferences in the last 16 years,” he said.

Dr. Sidhu, UHS’ Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Medical Director and Chairman (UHS Wilson Medical Center and UHS Binghamton General Hospital), presented on the case of a patient with medication-related lymphocyte proliferation, or overproduction of white blood cells. “The patient had taken methotrexate for a few years to treat rheumatoid arthritis, and had added a medication called etanercept two months earlier. The patient had swollen lymph nodes throughout the body, and the ICU physician suspected the blood cancer lymphoma,” he said. As a hematopathology specialist, Dr. Sidhu was asked to review the patient’s samples for cancer. , and Aalthough there was a high level of a certain type of lymphocytes present, they were benign.

With the patient reassured and the care team provided with clinical direction, Dr. Sidhu continued to research, and found that the type of lymphocyte proliferated in the patient's lymph node was largely unexplored in the medical literature. He wrote about the case, and submitted it to the conference. “No one had submitted a case like this before. It’s important because it reassures physicians and patients that not all lymphocyte proliferation related to etanercept and methotrexate is a cancer marker,” he said.

Dr. Sidhu has been in practice at UHS for three decades, and highlights advancements in the last 20 years that now enable pathologists to make extremely refined diagnoses in-house. “UHS has become self-sufficient by bringing in new technologies like immunohistochemistry and flow cytometry. We’re conducting tests on cancer specimens -- sometimes with help from commercial labs -- to provide results that guide therapeutic decisions. We’re also able to offer prognostic information about how the patient is likely to do,” he said. He credits this ability to the wide variety of subspecialty expertise in the pathology group: “We have pathologists trained in almost all major subspecialties needed to diagnose cases in our community -- we only occasionally seek outside expert opinions. The deep expertise of UHS pathologists and their finely-honed subspecialty diagnostic skills means patients in our community get faster care. This depth of expertise is not the case at most community hospitals.” All essential laboratory tests are processed 24/7, ensuring clinicians have diagnostic information when they need it."

UHS’s flow cytometry service – handling leukemia and lymphoma diagnoses and monitoring cell counts for HIV patients – processes 1,300 cases for ruling out leukemia, lymphoma, and thousands of specimens for monitoring cell counts a year. “A flow cytometry lab that processes 1,200 cases per year for ruling out leukemia amdand lymphoma is considered large – we have the highest volume in the region,” said Dr. Sidhu. The laboratory overall is getting busier – and more pathologists are joining the department. “We have two more pathologists joining us in July 2025. All of this is possible because of the increasing number of subspecialty-trained physicians, surgeons and pathologists, general physicians and general surgeons, and state-of-the-art technology we have at UHS,” he added.

UHS offers 16 convenient outpatient laboratory service centers throughout the region, many with extended hours to accommodate your busy schedule. Although all tests must be ordered by a clinician, no appointments are necessary for routine collection services.

If you’re scheduled for a laboratory sample collection and have questions or concerns, the Laboratory Client Services Department is available to help – call (607) 763-5780 from 7:30am AM to 5:15pm PM Monday through Friday. For additional information or to locate a UHS laboratory collection site, visit nyuhs.org/care-treatment/laboratory-services.