A life-saving trip: patients' lives travel into the heart of ARUP laboratories.

AuthorOwens-Liston, Peta
PositionTIME OUT FOR HEALTH

Have you seen the thousands of bright yellow boxes Delta Airlines unloads from flights multiple times a day? They don't contain luggage but carefully secured items that are linked to tens of thousands of lives from around the country and the world--items that are integral, even vital, to the lives they represent.

Every day, these customized cargo boxes carrying specimens are expedited to ARUP Laboratories, where 45,000-50,000 specimens of blood, body fluid and tissue biopsies are processed daily to help health care providers determine a diagnosis for their patient and begin treatment. If each specimen took a seat at Rice-Eccles Stadium, they would more than fill it.

"We are definitely Delta Air Cargo's largest client at the Salt Lake City airport, fluctuating between five and six thousand boxes a month," says Chris Sorensen, ARUP national transportation manager. "Delta handles between 35 to 40 percent of our shipments, followed closely by FedEx."

Is the tumor cancerous? What type of chemotherapy will work best? Why is this newborn struggling to survive? What type of leukemia flows through this child's blood? "Our scientists are constantly revamping tests to see if they are fast enough, accurate enough, and sensitive enough, and picking up on any interferences of which we may not be aware," explains Mark Astill, vice president, Research & Development. Aside from improving on existing tests, ARUP's 150 scientists invent new ones, averaging more than 80 new assays annually over the last three years.

Cellular and genetic clues are identified and analyzed in one of ARUP's 60 labs, overseen by 80 medical directors--most are faculty in the Department of Pathology at the University of Utah School of Medicine. If needed, these pathology experts, along with ARUP's team of genetic counselors, assist physicians and their patients in understanding their lab test results.

Since ARUP is one of the most automated laboratories in the world, the journey from the yellow boxes' arrival in Specimen Processing to the specimens reaching the hands and minds of medical laboratory experts is a little bit like a trip through Disneyland. Albeit, the "ride" these specimens take is not about fun but about time, efficiency and sample viability. "The turnaround time of specimens is always on our mind because each one is connected directly to a patient awaiting a diagnosis," says Jay Henrie, an ARUP Specimen Processing technician.

Inside ARUP's main building in Research...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT