Sam Terese, President and CEO of Alverno Laboratories, was interviewed on the Mission Matters Innovation Podcast.
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Advancements and innovations in laboratory services are changing the landscape of the medical industry. Sam Terese shares how Alverno Laboratories is playing its part to provide better, quicker patient care.
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What mission matters to you?
Terese says that in his laboratory career of over 40 years, he has worn many hats and played many different roles. Now that he’s leading Alverno Laboratories, he says his mission is to take the organization to new heights and keep it driven by innovation, so that it can better serve and care for its patients and communities.
The evolution in healthcare
“In my entire career, I’ve never seen as much attention on the laboratory space as in the past two years,” says Terese. “The laboratories were never on the front page, but in the pandemic, they became the backbone of the health industry. We are continuing to search for other ways and technologies to deliver different levels of care for COVID and other diseases.”
How does Alverno Laboratories operate?
Alverno Laboratories is a technology and innovation hub that operates in an integrated model that owns or serves more than 30 hospital laboratories. “It’s challenging to pull off a unique model in a central laboratory where everyone is working together in standardized ways and focused on delivering care and quality,” Terese says. “We do it at Alverno with the support of our 2000+ dedicated associates, who understand our mission and challenge themselves to do better to meet the needs of our patients and physicians.”
How do technology and innovation contribute to Alverno Laboratories?
The way Alverno Laboratories has leveraged technology to standardize processes and introduce innovations has made a stark difference, Terese says. They played a pivotal role in introducing automation in microbiology, which he explains has made for dramatic improvements including faster processing.
“We’re now more equipped to diagnose heart attacks with the knowledge of high sensitivity troponin,” Terese says, “which allows clinicians to understand the symptoms better in cardiac care.” He also talks about his company’s recent strides in the study of cancer. “We’ve moved into next-generation sequencing for the diagnosis and characterization of cancer for oncology patients,” he says, “which can result in better clinical trials options for the patients.”
Using digital pathology Terese says Alverno Laboratories scans around a million to a million and a half slides of tissue slides on an annual basis. The company is also experimenting with AI technology to bring cutting-edge advancements into diagnostic processes. “We have also taken initiatives on the administrative front to speed up the diagnosis process by sharing the scans virtually,” he notes.
What’s next for Alverno Laboratories?
“We are focusing on figuring out how we can keep families healthier at their homes in a self-sufficient way,” Terese says. “Just like COVID-19 at-home testing kits are rolling out, we are turning our thoughts how this model might be expanded for other health challenges in our communities. The brand’s next venture, he says, will also focus on collecting results and getting data into medical records with the help of technology so communities can take better care of their health.
To learn more about Alverno Laboratories, visit alvernolabs.com.
