The medical school’s forensic toxicology laboratory began testing in February and recently passed a milestone of having completed 10,000 tests for Vitamin D2 and D3.
WMed ForenTox began testing Feb. 26 and tests about 300 specimens a day from Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, said Prentiss Jones, PhD, the forensic laboratory’s director and an associate professor in the medical school’s Department of Biomedical Sciences. Jones, a board-certified forensic toxicologist, leads the forensic laboratory and has a team of five licensed staff.
WMed ForenTox is developing further tests and plans to offer testing soon for volatile compounds, pain management, oral fluids and blood lead.
Jones said WMed ForenTox is working with Joint Venture Hospital Laboratories (JVHL) to recommend a standard pain management panel within the JVHL laboratory network -- testing to look at patients’ use of pain management drugs to ensure patients are taking the drugs they are prescribed and to standardize physician ordering practices. Currently more than 120 hospitals across Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana participate in JVHL laboratory service agreements covering 5.4 million members for outpatient and outreach laboratory services.
Patients who are enrolled in pain management programs are required to be tested to continue receiving their medication. At present, however, the drugs that are being tested through pain management panels vary across the country, Jones said.
“You have to consider the number of individuals in pain on a daily basis,” Jones said. “Approximately 86 million American adults are affected by chronic pain to some degree.” “We want to make sure the proper panels are being performed and the drugs that should be monitored are being monitored. Given the number of people in pain, this type of testing must be performed.”
Jones said he anticipates having the test available by fall. He estimates WMed ForenTox will test 50 to 100 pain management specimens a day.
Jones said the forensic laboratory also is developing a test to detect illicit drugs in umbilical cord tissue to determine whether babies have been exposed to drug use in the womb. Many hospitals collect the meconium, or the first stool, of a baby if intrauterine drug exposure is suspected, but Jones said the collection can be problematic and at times suspected drug addiction in babies doesn’t show up until days later.
In Michigan, most of these meconium specimens are being sent out-of-state to be tested, but Jones said he anticipate his laboratory will be able to offer umbilical cord testing by late fall.
WMed ForenTox also will be able to provide postmortem toxicology testing for the Office of the Medical Examiner, which examines sudden or unexpected deaths for 12 counties in Michigan.
WMed ForenTox is registered through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as defined under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA). The laboratory participates in the College of American Pathologists (CAP) proficiency testing program and will have an inspection for CAP accreditation in August.