QuidelOrtho Science BYTES Podcast – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Did you know that women are 10 times more likely than men to develop a thyroid condition, yet often remain undiagnosed due to medical bias and lack of awareness? We often see women present themselves to an emergency department with health concerns that are brushed off as “stress” or “weight-related” versus conducting diagnostic testing to identify the root cause.

How can we address that?

Don’t miss this episode on how healthcare providers can address these types of biases including timeliness of diagnosis, screening practices, and interpretation of lab results to enhance the quality of care for women with thyroid conditions.

About our speaker

Jeff Houtz, Senior Global Product Manager

Jeff Houtz is the Senior Global Product Manager for QuidelOrtho covering thyroid and reproductive endocrine products. Jeff has 35 years of experience in research and development, product development, and medical education in a variety of disease states including reproductive and thyroid disorders. Providing accurate and meaningful diagnoses in furtherance of improved healthcare has always been a driver and motivator. Jeff has been instrumental in creating numerous CME and P.A.C.E.-accredited content for physicians, nurses, and laboratorians in the U.S. and Europe.

In addition to assay development Jeff is passionate about patient advocacy which is why he has worked closely with the Graves’ Disease and Thyroid Foundation and Thyroid Federation International. Jeff has also collaborated with LifeTime TV in support of programs on The Balancing Act and Access Health surrounding thyroid disease.

Jeff is also a family man married for 30 years with 2 wonderful kids.

The World Health Organization estimates 3.7 billion people under age 50 (67%) globally have herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) infection, the main cause of oral herpes, and 491 million people aged 15–49 (13%) worldwide have a herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) infection, the main cause of genital herpes.  Although treatable, most HSV infections are often asymptomatic or unrecognized.  Moreover, management of HSV infections is complicated by overlapping clinical presentation of unrelated herpesvirus infections, such as varicella-zoster virus (VZV), requiring differential diagnosis.  Innovations in molecular diagnostics continue to play a critical role in the diagnosis and management of these diseases.

About Our Speaker: 

Lori Henderson earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Bucknell University. She began her career in the laboratory working on drug discovery and then transitioned into commercial roles within the biopharma and diagnostics sectors of the life science industry. Lori has direct experience in multiple disease and therapeutic areas and currently focuses on sexually transmitted diseases and women’s health. Within the molecular business unit at QuidelOrtho, Lori is responsible for identifying and helping drive the development of products to meet clinical and patient needs.

The cybersecurity landscape continues to evolve. Health Care Companies Are the #1 Target for Cyberattacks and Data Breaches. The pace of the release of cybersecurity guidance and regulations for medical devices across the globe has been accelerating. Globally, some regulatory bodies have restricted their guidance to premarket concerns, and others have provided guidelines to include post-market considerations. One of the key tenants of all post-market cybersecurity guidance and regulations is the manufacturer’s responsibility to evaluate and maintain their product cybersecurity continually. This additional level of scrutiny and regulations only increases the need to act now. To prepare for and combat these cyberattacks, healthcare companies must make the necessary investments in people, processes, and technology. A reactive approach to cybersecurity is no longer feasible. It’s time to anticipate and prevent these attacks before they even arrive. Learn in this episode how new, predictive technologies analyze past threats to identify future threats. Ideally, this results in the detection of potentially harmful files or behaviors before an attack is successful.

About Our Speaker: As Ortho Clinical Diagnostic’s Chief Information Security Officer, Patty Ryan is responsible for defining the firm’s global Information Security strategy, roadmap, and operating infrastructure. Partnering globally with IT, Compliance, Commercial, Regulatory, Legal, Quality, R&D, and Strategic Marketing resources, she ensures that all Information Security controls operate effectively and efficiently, that staff is aware of their responsibility to protect client and proprietary information, and that the security team defines and manages information risk appropriately. Patty has over 30 years of IT experience, over half of that in Information Security executive positions. She has worked in financial services (Bankers Trust, Citi, CitiStreet), life sciences (Johnson & Johnson), and legal (Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen, and Loewy LLP) and brings a wide range of experience to Ortho. She holds a BA in Economics from Columbia College, Columbia University, and an Executive MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University. 

World Diabetes Day takes place each year in the month of November, created to raise awareness about the disease.  Diabetes is a global health threat diabetes with the number of people living with diabetes continuing to rise. Diagnostic testing is one of the major tools to help prevent and manage the disease. 

About our Speaker:

Dr. Amy L. Pyle earned her Ph.D. in Molecular Pathology from Vanderbilt University. Following graduate school, Dr. Pyle completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Clinical Chemistry at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Pyle took a position as Assistant Director of Core Laboratories at Nationwide Children's Hospital in 2011. Throughout her training, Dr. Pyle published multiple abstracts, papers, and book chapters, and has received numerous awards for her contributions to the scientific community.

High-prevalence antigens occur in greater than 99% of the population. Antibodies to high-prevalence antigens are rare and may be difficult to identify due to the lack of antigen-negative panel cells for these antigens. Examples of antibodies to high-prevalence antigens are: anti-k, anti-Kpb, anti-Jsb, and anti-Lub among many others There is a need to proper identify these antibodies before transfusion to differentiate clinically significant antibodies, that could cause hemolytic transfusion reactions or hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn from those with little or no clinical relevance. Their specific identification is often difficult, labor-intensive, and time-consuming and it may be difficult to find antigen-negative compatible blood for the patient in need of a transfusion

Learn in this episode clues to recognize if an antibody to a high-prevalence antigen is present and how to apply practices for their identification in the lab and additional recommendations for patient management.

About Our Speaker: 

Shane Grimsley, DipRCPath; holds a diplomate in Pathology from the Royal College of Pathologists, UK and has been working at the International Blood Group Reference Laboratory, NHSBT in the UK since 2009, as laboratory manager from 2015 and Senior Clinical Scientist since 2020. Since 2017, Shane has been the lead scientific advisor to the UK NEQAS Red Cell Genotyping scientific advisory group, compiling complex reports to help educate the users. He has been an active member of the editorial board for Immunohematology as well as a reviewer for Vox Sanguinis and Transfusion Medicine since 2019.

Shane is the winner of the 2020 Race and Sanger award from the British Blood Transfusion Society for outstanding contribution to the field of Transfusion, primarily for his work developing a genotyping platform for accurate prediction of variant phenotypes in patients with Sickle Cell Disorder. He also is a winner of the 2010 Margaret Kenwright Young Scientist of the year from the British Blood Transfusion Society, for his work resolving complex compound heterozygous allele combinations and the identifying the associated antibody specificities.

Shane is an international scientific speaker and a workshop instructor for immunohematology topics in conference programs, such as ISBT. He also has been involved in the identification of new blood group systems, new antigens and novel alleles.  Shane is helping lead a team of skilled and passionate scientists to resolve the world’s most complex immunohematology cases, contributing to ground-breaking projects that have improved the standards of care for patients.

Sepsis occurs when the body’s immune system responds to an infection and injures its own tissues and organs. It is a medical emergency, requiring early detection and treatment as it can lead to septic shock, multi-organ failure, and death. One in five deaths worldwide is associated with sepsis and 40% of cases are in children under five years of age. Sepsis is the number one cause of death in hospitals, the number one cause of hospital readmissions, and the number one healthcare cost.

Laboratory testing is essential in helping prevent, detect, and treat sepsis to minimize injury to the body and the risk of death.

About Our Speaker: 

Dr. Lui Forni is a Professor and Consultant Nephrologist and Intensivist at Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in Guildford, England. Professor Forni earned a PhD in physical chemistry and subsequently studied medicine, specializing in nephrology and intensive care medicine. His research interests include pre-operative assessment of high-risk surgical candidates, renal replacement therapy, diagnosis, pathophysiology and treatment of acute kidney injury, and predictive modeling in acute medical admissions. He lectures both nationally and internationally and has published widely.  He served as the Past Research Chair and is the Current Secretary of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine.

A rare donor program is a collaborative effort of many blood centers and/or hospitals to combine their rare donor resources to supply what they have to patients in need. These centers work to identify rare donors by screening methods and inclusion in database systems.

Learn in this episode what resources are available to the medical community to ensure availability for patients in need of blood and why it is critical to national and international collaboration through joint programs.

About our Speaker: 

Sandra Nance has provided leadership to the American Rare Donor Program, American Red Cross Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics laboratories, the National Reference Laboratories for Blood Group Serology, Molecular Testing, Neutrophil and Specialized Testing. She engineered the nationalized American Red Cross SBB Program. She is now a volunteer for the American Red Cross and Emeritus Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. She earned her Master in Pathology from the University of Maryland and her SBB from The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions.   Ms. Nance held leadership positions in the AABB, ASCP, ICII, and ISBT. She chaired the ISBT Working Party on Rare Donors and conceptualized the ISBT Working Party on Immunohematology, and as the past Chair, managed the Case Studies. She has been inducted into the ASCP and the National Blood Foundation Halls of Fame and has received the AABB’s Sally Frank, John Elliott and President’s Awards, AIMS John Moulds, CBBS Suzanne Ledin, MAABB Kay Beattie, New York Supervisors Ron Dubin, and UTMB Jean Stubbins awards. She is the past Editor in Chief of Immunohematology Journal of Blood Group Serology and Molecular Genetics, is a member of Transfusion’s Editorial Board and reviews for several journals. She developed the polyethylene glycol method for serologic testing and the monocyte monolayer assay (MMA) to predict in vivo survival of transfused incompatible red cells. She initiated the International MMA Training classes so other countries can implement the MMA to assist with patients requiring rare blood. Ms. Nance has been invited to present over 250 lectures and has been a frequent contributor to the scientific literature.

In Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) patients, one of the most critical treatments is a blood transfusion. A blood transfusion is used to provide normal red blood cells to the patient’s body. Red blood cell transfusions help lessen anemia and reduce the blood’s viscosity, allowing it to flow more freely, ease disease symptoms and prevent complications. Alloimmunization is common in patients with SCD and may complicate transfusion therapy. For many patients, a close blood type match is essential and is found in donors of the same race or similar ethnicity.

In this episode, learn why patient phenotyping and prophylactic matching to reduce alloimmunization is recommended for SCD patients and why donor source for blood donations of the same race or similar ethnicity is critical.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Stella T. Chou is Chief of the Division of Transfusion Medicine, board-certified in Blood Banking and Transfusion Medicine, and an attending physician in the Division of Hematology at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Chou earned her medical degree from New York Medical College in Valhalla, NY. She specializes in caring for children with SCD, those who make antibodies against red blood cell transfusions (alloimmunization), and those requiring apheresis. Her research interests are focused on improving red blood cell matching for patients through the use of innovative tools.

Her work has demonstrated that inheritance of variant blood group antigens in patients with SCD contributes to their high rate of red blood cell antibody formation. Her ongoing work focuses on the genetic matching of red blood cells and creating customized induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) with rare blood group antigen combinations as renewable sources of red blood cell reagents to improve antibody identification and donor red blood cell matching. For her innovative research, she is a recipient of the National Blood Foundation Hall of Fame award. Dr. Chou is a worldwide recognized author and speaker with over 100 publications and lectures. In addition to her clinical work, Dr. Chou serves as an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania.

Review the role of extended antigen typing or phenotyping in Transfusion Medicine. How this practice plays a significant role in the transfusion of sickle cell, thalassemia, and myelodysplastic syndrome patients as well as other chronically transfused patients, preventing the development of foreign antibodies which may avoid the challenges that come later with complex antibody problems and brings the additional benefit of allowing finding compatible blood for patients in need of a transfusion. In this podcast edition, we will explore those key points and more.  

About our Speaker: Tony S. Casina, MT(ASCP)SBB has worked in the blood banking industry for over 40 years with much of it in the commercial blood bank reagent manufacturers sector with hospital experience as a medical technologist and blood bank manager. Tony has provided technical support to laboratories throughout the world utilizing Ortho’s reagents and immunohematology test systems.  He has tested some of the most challenging antibody problems as part of his reference laboratory experience. Tony has been an active participant in the AABB serving on committees and currently on the AABB Board of Directors. He has contributed as a presenter to AABB and regional blood bank meetings educational programs. He was extensively involved in the development of the ORTHO VISION® Analyzer Platform.

The World Health Organization estimated that during 2019, 58 million people worldwide were living with the Hepatitis C virus (HCV) which causes inflammation of the liver.  All types of hepatitis can be controlled or prevented. There is a cure for Hepatitis C; however, HCV infection is often undiagnosed because it remains asymptomatic until symptoms appear that are related to serious liver damage, a complication of the infection. 

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Dr. Bijal Parikh is the Medical Director of the Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory and Assistant Professor of Pathology & Immunology at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. 

He is the author of numerous publications with his clinical research centered on aspects of laboratory testing involving viral, immunologic, and molecular diagnostics, with a specific focus on the implementation of next-generation sequencing approaches.  Recently, Dr. Parikh authored an article published in the Clinical Microbiology Newsletter titled Laboratory Strategies for Diagnosis and Monitoring of Hepatitis C Virus Infection.