How to Avoid Building an Airplane Mid Flight: Lab Medicine in the Face of Emerging Public Health Crises



 

The year 2020 will go down as one of the most difficult, trying, and socially polarizing years in modern history because of the global pandemic of COVID-19. Nearly every facet of life on earth faced disruptive and dynamic challenges that pushed operational processes to the brink of collapse in different ways. Laboratory medicine is no exception to this disruption and learned a great deal from these experiences. Though COVID-19 was exceptional, should the laboratory community, especially the clinical microbiology lab, have been more nimble and able to respond to such an emerging challenge? Were 2016 Zika, 2014 Ebola, 2012 MERS CoV, and 2009 nH1N1 not enough of a practice schedule for the big game? In 2022, human monkeypox virus further exposed the fact that clinical laboratories, including public health and federal agencies, had made improvements but were still unable to adequately respond. The clinical lab is at a turning point of being reactive versus proactive. This presentation will focus on strategies and approaches to consider for making your laboratory proactive to respond to the next emerging pathogen or reemerging infectious disease.

Originally presented on September 28, 2023, in Salt Lake City, Utah.


Lecture Presenters

Benjamin T. Bradley, MD, PhD

Benjamin T. Bradley, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor (Clinical)
University of Utah School of Medicine
Medical Director, High Consequence Pathogen Response, Virology and Molecular Infectious Diseases
ARUP Laboratories

Dr. Benjamin Bradley is a medical director of high consequence pathogen response and of virology and molecular infectious disease at ARUP Laboratories. Dr. Bradley is also an assistant professor (clinical) at the University of Utah School of Medicine. He received a medical degree and a doctorate degree from Tulane University School of Medicine. He completed his residency in anatomic and clinical pathology at the University of Washington Medical Center, as well as a fellowship in clinical microbiology at the University of Utah and ARUP Laboratories. Dr. Bradley is certified by the American Board of Pathology in anatomic and clinical pathology and in medical microbiology. He received the Jacob Ambrose Storck prize in 2017, and both the Strandjord-Clayson award and the Paul E. Strandjord Young Investigator award in 2020. His research interests include the development and clinical implementation of viral diagnostics, direct-from-tissue detection of infectious organisms, and infectious disease pathology education.


Marc R. Couturier, PhD

Marc R. Couturier, PhD

Professor (Clinical)
University of Utah School of Medicine
Medical Director, Emerging Public Health Crises, Parasitology/ Fecal Testing, and Infectious Disease Antigen Testing
ARUP Laboratories

Dr. Marc R. Couturier is a medical director of emerging public health crises and microbial immunology, parasitology and fecal testing at ARUP Laboratories and a professor of pathology at the University of Utah School of Medicine. Dr. Couturier graduated from the University of Alberta with a doctorate degree in bacteriology. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Alberta Provincial Laboratory for Public Health and a medical microbiology fellowship at the University of Utah School of Medicine. Dr. Couturier is certified by the American Board of Medical Microbiology. He has received the Outstanding Teaching Award in Clinical Pathology, the Bill Roberts Award for Excellence in Laboratory Medicine, and the Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics Young Investigators Award. His research interests include helicobacter pylori diagnostics and developing improved diagnostics for emerging agents of infectious gastroenteritis.


Objectives

After this presentation, participants will be able to:

  • Review the recent history of emerging/reemerging pathogens and challenges faced by laboratories
  • Describe the challenges of resolving differences in federal regulatory processes for test development compared to traditional clinical laboratory processes for assay development
  • Identify key stakeholders and important communication strategies for improved response and workflows for responding to emerging and/or reemerging pathogens

Sponsored by:

University of Utah School of Medicine, Department of Pathology, and ARUP Laboratories