Dominion Diagnostics Sets A New Standard of Care In The Field of Pain Medicine: Company Introduces New Approach for Screening Patients and Advising Physicians

As part of a broader change in pain management therapy from a historically generalized to a more personalized approach, one Rhode Island Company is taking the reins and driving a new standard of care. Today, Dominion Diagnostics LLC, a privately-held clinical testing laboratory, announced the release of Scientifically Accurate Medication Monitoring (SAMMTM), a unique clinical medication monitoring report that enhances the practice of pain and addiction medicine and allows physicians to better individualize treatment for patients in their care.

SAMM includes a validated comprehensive screen for pain medications and their associated metabolites along with expert interpretation and support from Dominion’s team of clinical pharmacologists and MD’s. SAMM is generated for each quantitative testing profile that Dominion performs. Dominion now offers a new level of interpretation and clinical support that has not been available to the pain medicine field to date including quantitative information on prescribed and abused pain medications as well as information on the drug source. Dominion Diagnostics is the only laboratory of its kind providing scientifically validated and published data to support clinical interpretation and enhance patient pharmacotherapy.

The development of SAMM is the culmination of many years’ work at Dominion, involving consistent adoption of leading, innovative technologies to meet and exceed the real, everyday needs of its clients. In early 2006, Dominion was the first laboratory, specializing in clinical quantitative urine drug testing for pain and addiction medicine, to add liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) to its extensive laboratory menu through the acquisition of Waters® ACQUITY UltraPerformance LC® (UPLC®)/TQD and Quattro micro™ Mass Spectrometry (MS) systems. To meet patient pharmacotherapy demands in 2008, Dominion will grow its capacity to a total of 11 UPLC/MS/MS systems in its laboratory.

Offering a combination of more efficient analyses and greater sensitivity, resolution and specificity, UPLC/MS/MS helps Dominion issue fast turnaround on true comprehensive metabolic profiles with every analysis, something that is not possible with conventional methods of analysis like immunoassay and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The resultant data, seamlessly integrated with Dominion’s model of clinical expertise and comprehensive support services, offers physicians and clinicians new tools to provide their patients with a higher level of individually appropriate care.

With the addition of SAMM, Dominion enables physicians to better monitor individual patient’s prescription compliance, identify potential diversion, and detect illicit drug use. SAMM is backed by Dominion’s unique, industry-leading Clinical Services team of pharmacologists, physicians, pharmacists, and PharmDs.

“Waters’ technology and clinical applications expertise have enabled our business to get to another level in terms of the services, like SAMM, that we can offer our clients,” said Dr. Frank Fornari, CEO of Dominion Diagnostics. “The technology has allowed us to create a new model for clinical drug monitoring in pain management and addiction medicine.”

According to Dr. Robert L. Barkin, Pharm.D, MBA, FCP, DAAPM, the UPLC/MS/MS integrated solutions offers patient-specific/centered objective data that pain management and other specialty clinicians have been requesting for years. Dr. Barkin is an Associate Professor, Faculty of Anesthesiology, Family Medicine, and Pharmacology, at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois, as well as a Pharmacotherapy Consultant at the Rush Pain Center, Chicago, Illinois, and the North Shore Pain Center at Rush North Shore Hospital in Skokie, Illinois. “Waters’ solutions, coupled with Dominion’s SAMM, offers the most comprehensive, scientifically-backed data that has ever been available to our industry,” Dr. Barkin stated. “Now that we have the ability to interpret individual patient pharmacotherapy with this information, we can better focus our efforts on improving the quality of life and functional status of both our patients and their families.”

“At Waters, our number one goal is to understand our customers’ needs and respond with accurate and cost-effective analytical tools that allow clinical laboratories to expand their offerings and increase their level of service,” said Michael Yelle, Senior Director, Clinical Business Operations at the Waters Division of Waters Corporation. “We look forward to continuing to work closely with Dominion Diagnostics and to help create new opportunities for them through our solutions and clinical applications expertise.”