Medication Monitoring
Our medication monitoring program is quality driven and comprehensive. We offer testing of urine and oral fluid to verify a patient’s adherence to prescription medication or their noncompliance for a therapeutic regimen. Our test menu includes all major drug classes.
For questions with laboratory reports or methodology, please call or email the support@ss-Labs.com hotline. Your question(s) will be routed to the best qualified personnel and answered in a timely manner.
Molecular Assays
Pharmacogenetics
Pharmacogenetics (PGx) is the study of how genes affect a person’s response to drugs. This relatively new field combines pharmacology (the science of drugs) and genomics (the study of genes and their functions) to develop effective, safe medications and doses that will be tailored to a person’s genetic makeup. Many drugs currently available are “one size fits all”, but they don’t work the same way for everyone. It can be difficult to predict who will benefit from a medication, who will not respond at all, and who will experience negative side effects (called adverse drug reactions). Adverse drug reactions are a significant cause of hospitalizations and deaths in the United States. With the knowledge gained from the Human Genome Project, researchers and clinicians are learning how inherited differences in genes affect the body’s response to medications. These genetic differences are being used to predict whether a medication will be effective for a particular person and to help prevent adverse drug reactions.
The PGx program at Specialty Screening Labs, LLC is proud to partner with Coriell Life Sciences to bring providers and patients a report dedicated to personalized medicine. Our overall health is determined by many factors (lifestyle, race, age, gender, environment, and genetics). Our GeneDose report takes all of these factors into consideration to provide a comprehensive and personal assessment of your patient’s health. Reports now offer guidance on drug-drug interactions, adverse drug reactions, and appropriate dosing. The goal of this all-inclusive report is to improve patient compliance and patient outcome by reducing unnecessary side effects, associated risks, and costs related to their current drug regimen.
Specialty Screening Labs recognizes that a patient’s health factors may change over time. Therefore, our report will give providers access to GeneDose Live, an interactive tool for providers. The GeneDose LIVE site allows providers to update patient lifestyle factors, model the use of alternative medications in the patient’s drug regimen, and create an updated report showing these changes.
Specialty Screening Labs also recognizes that it can be difficult to keep patients engaged in the conversation of their health. Therefore, our report will also give patients access to SafeTRx, an interactive tool for patients. The SafeTRx site allows patients to survey their health and lifestyle choices, learn more about pharmacogenomic testing options, and store their test results in the secured site. Specialty Screening Labs is excited to share these new tools to empower our providers through simplified genomics.
Hereditary Cancer
Most cancers arise as a result of acquired gene mutations that happen over the course of a person’s lifetime. These genetic alterations may have an external cause, such as exposure to sunlight or tobacco. But gene mutations can also be random events that sometimes happen within a cell, without a clear cause. Acquired genetic alterations affect cells originating from the mutation. Normal cells, lacking the mutation will not be affected and acquired mutations will not be passed onto offspring. In contrast, with inherited mutations, every cell in the body is affected and the mutation may be passed to children.
Inherited genetic mutations can increase a person’s risk of developing cancer in a myriad of different ways. Many mutations have already been identified through research but there remains much to be determined. Genetic testing is performed to determine whether family members without obvious illness have inherited the same mutation as a family member who is known to carry a cancer-associated mutation.
This panel may be considered for individuals with:
- a clinical history indicative of a hereditary cancer syndrome but limited information due to small family size or adoption
- a family history presenting with multiple cancer types that could fit the features of more than one hereditary cancer syndrome
There are also some common general features suggestive of a family with hereditary cancer syndrome. These include:
- cancer diagnosed at an unusually young age
- different types of cancer that have occurred independently in the same person
- cancer that has developed in both organs of a set of paired organs (e.g., both kidneys, both breasts)
- several close blood relatives that have the same type of cancer
- unusual cases of a specific cancer type (e.g., male breast cancer)
Call for more information on genes and gene panels tested.
Infectious Disease
