Ronald L. Weiss - ARUP Laboratories
ARUP Laboratories is a national clinical and anatomic pathology reference laboratory and an enterprise of the University of Utah and its Department of Pathology. With 2,000 employees, ARUP offers in excess of 2,000 tests for patients throughout the country. We recently caught up with Ronald L.Weiss, president and chief operating officer of ARUP Laboratories, to discover more about one of Utah's largest life science companies.
Silicon Slopes: Can you describe what goes on at ARUP Laboratories?
Ronald L. Weiss: ARUP Laboratories is a medical laboratory that is owned by the University of Utah. We perform patient testing for the full range of disease diagnosis and management decisions made by health care providers.
Silicon Slopes:Who are your typical clients?
Ronald L. Weiss: We serve hospital laboratories and independent medical laboratories from all around the U.S.
Silicon Slopes: You make a case for personalized medicine. How does this help curb the current high costs in the health care system?
Ronald L. Weiss: Personalized medicine hold tremendous promise for the future, although there are of few current examples of its utility. For example, there is significant genetic variation in how individuals metabolize the blood-thinner warfarin, which is used in managing patients with histories of serious blot clots. Those who metabolize the drug quickly are at risk for being under-coagulated with the danger of additional clot formation, including strokes. Those who metabolize the drug slowly are at risk of being over-coagulated and suffering serious bleeding complications as a result. Being able to identify these different categories of “responders” very early in treatment can be used to optimize dosage and minimize complications with the attendant impact on the cost of caring for those patients. It is genuinely believed that in the future we will have more opportunities like this to tailor therapy to the specific characteristics of patients and, of their diseases, in a way that optimizes both treatment and costs.
Silicon Slopes: What sets you apart from other reference laboratories?
Ronald L. Weiss: ARUP Laboratories, because of our ownership by a research university, aligns patient care, service and academic achievement in a synergistic way. This allows us to bring the widest range of medical laboratory and pathology services in our industry to our clients nationwide, as well as to the patients and health care providers of the University Hospitals & Clinics. It capitalizes on the expertise and innovative imagination of the faculty of the School of Medicine, particularly the Department of Pathology, to service patient care needs, to bring new ideas to development and deployment, and to educate the medical profession on the value and benefit of these services.
Silicon Slopes: Can you tell us about ATOP (Analyzing Test Ordering Patterns) and how it has helped your customers and costs?
Ronald L. Weiss: This is a unique service which allows ARUP to advise our clients, based upon the volume and mix of testing services that they refer to ARUP as well as what they perform in their own laboratories, on where they have opportunities to more effectively utilize these services. This means both clinically effective…the right tests at the right time…as well as cost effective.
Silicon Slopes: You have also recently released ARUP Consult v3.0. How does this new version better assist physicians?
Ronald L. Weiss: This decision support tool was designed from the beginning as a readily accessible, freely available, tool for health care providers to determine how to most effectively utilize laboratory services in the management of their patients at the point-of-care. It is written in a disease-oriented format with concise information and references. v3.0 provides enhancements and updates to existing citations, as well as adding new ones.
Silicon Slopes: Your company has been awarded this year with the "Business Recycler of the Year" from the Recycling Coalition of Utah and deemed one of Utah’s Best Places to Work over the last seven years. ARUP is continually lauded for its “Green” philosophies and Workplace Wellness Programs. Why are these programs important?
Ronald L. Weiss: ARUP Laboratories is a member of the community and, as such, feels obligated to help lead our efforts to improve our local environment primarily because it is the right thing to do. In the long term, it will also save us money, for instance in reduced water usage as a result of our multi-year xeriscaping project.
Silicon Slopes: What is your connection with the University of Utah?
Ronald L. Weiss: As I have mentioned above, ARUP Laboratories is wholly owned by the University of Utah and operated as a private enterprise by its Department of Pathology in the School of Medicine.
