January 14, 2008 - Dominion Diagnostics LLC, a privately-held clinical testing laboratory, announced the release of Scientifically Accurate Medication Monitoring (SAMM), a unique clinical medication monitoring report that is said to enhance 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 M.D.'s. SAMM is generated for each quantitative testing profile that Dominion performs. The company says it 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.
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, reportedly offers physicians and clinicians new tools to provide their patients with a higher level of individually appropriate care.
According to Robert L. Barkin, M.D., 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, as well as a Pharmacotherapy Consultant at the Rush Pain Center, Chicago, and the North Shore Pain Center at Rush North Shore Hospital in Skokie, IL. "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."
For more information: www.dominiondiagnostics.com.