Description:  Technological innovations are potentially disruptive to laboratory testing and healthcare. Digital health is often described as the integration of digital technologies with healthcare that seeks to empower people to track their health, decrease inefficiencies, improve access, reduce costs, and increase the quality of care. Smartphones, wireless devices, and wearables provide the ability for consumers to monitor, analyze, report, and share fitness and health data via the Internet. Social media allows consumers to network with one another, and to compare wellness and information on health and disease states. Direct-to-consumer testing is also on the rise as consumers become more educated and proactive about their own health. Further, there is increased interest in the collection and commercialization of consumer and patient health data along with its subsequent mining for potential medical breakthroughs. This is an exciting time of advancement in our field, and its intersection with the public is unprecedented. As with all paradigm shifts, questions and debates arise, and there is a need to balance the hype and misconceptions with accurate and clear scientific information.

Bio:  David G. Grenache, PhD, MT(ASCP), D(ABCC), FAACC is the chief scientific officer for TriCore Reference Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In that role, he leads the TriCore Research Institute and works cooperatively to develop and implement TriCore’s scientific research strategy.

He is also the medical director of the chemistry, immunology, and esoteric analytic chemistry labs, a clinical professor of pathology at the University of New Mexico, and president of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry.

Dr. Grenache earned his PhD in biomedical sciences from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts, and completed postdoctoral training in clinical chemistry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Clinical Chemistry and a Fellow in the AACC Academy. His research interests are centered on leveraging longitudinal laboratory data to gain insights into population health and the diagnostic tests used to manage the pregnant patient.

Learning Outcome:

Participants will be able to discuss new topics in general pathology and laboratory medicine, as well as molecular pathology and other advanced biomedical technologies.

Learning Objectives:

1. Describe trends resulting from the emergence of digital medicine
2. Discuss challenges and opportunities for laboratorians in the era of digital medicine

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