Beyond The Result

In this episode of Diasorin’s Beyond the Result podcast, host Angelo Rago examines how laboratories can operationalize value‑based care principles and position diagnostics as a measurable driver of clinical, economic, and patient‑experience outcomes. Moving beyond theory, thisconversation focuses on the tactical actions labs can take to align testutilization, evidence generation, and accountability with value‑based goals.He is joined by Stephanie Whitehead, MBA, MPH, MLS(ASCP),Vice President of Pathology and Laboratory Services at University Health, and Dr. Melody Boudreaux Nelson, DCLS, CC (NRCC), MLS(ASCP), Assistant Clinical Professor and Assistant Clinical Director for the Core Laboratory, Universityof Kansas Medical Center. They bring complementary leadership, scientific and operational perspectives from large health systems to share their value-based care delivery model known as LAB-CARES.Highlights include:• Why diagnostics remains one of the least measured but most influential levers in value based care, and how labs can change that.• How laboratories can define meaningful outcomes that capture downstream clinical, economic, and patient experience impact.• Tactical approaches to diagnostic stewardship, evidence generation, and test strategy alignment with patient centered measures.• Where health systems should start to build transparency, governance, and accountability for diagnostic value.Credits:Host – Angelo Rago, President, Luminex Division of DiasorinGuests –• Stephanie Whitehead, MBA, MPH, MLS(ASCP), Vice President of Pathology andLaboratory Services, University Health• Melody Boudreaux Nelson, DCLS, CC (NRCC), MLS(ASCP), Assistant ClinicalProfessor and Assistant Clinical Director, Core Laboratory University of KansasMedical CenterDirector – Stephanie Ibbotson, Sr. Director of StrategicMarketing and Market AccessProducers – Michelle Tabb, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer; Laura Abelkis, Sr.Planning Manager, Strategic MarketingEditors – Britta Good, Graphic Designer, Global Marketing; Molly Frazier, Brandand Content Marketing Manager

In this episode of Diasorin’s Beyond the Result podcast, host Angelo Rago explores what it takes to run a diagnostic stewardship program day-to-day, moving beyond high level principles into the operational realities laboratories face. He is joined by Dr. Allison Chambliss, Director of Laboratory Stewardship, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, where she oversees diagnostic testing strategy, implementation, and quality across a large academic health system.Highlights include:• Why many stewardship programs launch without clear ownership, governance, or alignment on success, and how laboratories can help bridge these gaps.• How to translate “right test, right time” into practical workflows that balance clinical autonomy, technology constraints, and limited resources.• What works (and what doesn’t) when setting up, monitoring, and evolving stewardship initiatives in real world environments.• How stewardship can be sustained over time while demonstrating measurable clinical and system level value.Credits:Host – Angelo Rago, President of Luminex division of DiasorinGuest – Dr. Allison Chambliss, PhD, D(ABCC), Senior Leader, Clinical Microbiology, UCLA HealthDirector – Stephanie Ibbotson, Sr. Director of Strategic Marketing and Market AccessProducers – Michelle Tabb, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer, and Laura Abelkis, Sr. Planning Manager, Strategic MarketingEditors – Britta Good, Graphic Designer, Global Marketing, and Molly Frazier, Brand and Content Marketing ManagerLearn about our diagnostics portfolio on our website:https://us.diasorin.com/en/molecular-diagnostics?utm_source=YouTube&utm_medium=YT-description&utm_campaign=Podcast&utm_id=Corporate&utm_term=Ep9

In this episode of Diasorin’s Beyond the Result podcast, host Angelo Rago explores how expanding diagnostic stewardship beyond the hospital can strengthen care delivery across urgent care, retail clinics, long-term care, and other decentralized settings. He is joined by Dr. Donna Wolk, a nationally recognized leader in clinical and molecular microbiology.Highlights include:• How shifting infectious disease testing outside the hospital creates gaps in oversight, protocol consistency, and access to advanced diagnostics, and why stewardship must evolve to meet this shift.• The role of rapid, CLIA‑waived molecular point-of-care technologies in empowering frontline clinicians with timely, actionable results.• Barriers to adoption in alternative care settings, including workflow complexity, reimbursement uncertainty, and variable quality standards.• How connecting decentralized sites into a broader, data‑driven ecosystem can improve antibiotic prescribing accuracy and patient outcomes across the full care continuum.Credits: Host – Angelo Rago, President of Luminex division of Diasorin Guest – Dr. Donna Wolk, MHA, PhD,D(ABMM), Division Chief, Molecular and Microbial Diagnostics and Development Director - Stephanie Ibbotson, Sr. Director of Strategic Marketing and Market AccessProducers – Michelle Tabb, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer and Laura Abelkis, Sr. Planning Manager, Strategic Marketing Editors – Britta Good, Graphic Designer, Global Marketing and Molly Frazier, Brand and Content Marketing Manager Learn about our diagnostics portfolio on our website: https://us.diasorin.com/en/molecular-diagnostics?utm_source=YouTube&utm_medium=YT-description&utm_campaign=Podcast&utm_id=Corporate&utm_term=Ep8

In this episode of Diasorin’s Beyond the Result podcast, host Angelo Rago explores how diagnostic stewardship can become a cornerstone of value-based healthcare with Scott Wallace, a global leader in patient-centered outcomes measurement.Highlights include:• Why diagnostics are often treated as a transactional step—and how reframing them as a strategic driver can reduce variation, improve safety, and lower costs.• The concept of “right test, right patient, right time” and why it’s essential for achieving measurable outcomes in conditions like sepsis, cancer, and respiratory illness.• How international health systems are linking diagnostics to value-based payment models and accountability frameworks.• What cultural, structural, and data integration changes are needed to make diagnostic stewardship actionable and sustainable.Credits:Host – Angelo Rago, President of Luminex division of Diasorin Guest – Scott Wallace, J.D., MBA, CEO of the Health Value Academy and Associate Professor at Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin Director - Stephanie Ibbotson, Sr. Director of Strategic Marketing and Market AccessProducers – Michelle Tabb, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer and Laura Abelkis, Sr. Planning Manager, Strategic MarketingEditors – Britta Good, Graphic Designer, Global Marketing and Molly Frazier, Brand and Content Marketing ManagerLearn about our diagnostics portfolio on our website: https://us.diasorin.com/en/molecular-diagnostics?utm_source=YouTube&utm_medium=YT-description&utm_campaign=Podcast&utm_id=Corporate&utm_term=Ep7 For more information on value-based care, check out Scott Wallace's Value Base Healthcare Professional Program. This globally recognized and ICHOM certified course is designed to equip your team with the tools and strategies to deliver better outcomes and real value for patients.Learn more : http://www.ichom.org/education

In our latest episode of Diasorin’s Beyond the Resultpodcast, host Angelo Rago discusses diagnostic stewardship and moleculardiagnostic reimbursement with Gabriel Bien-Willner, MD, PhD, Medical Directorof MolDX and Chief Medical Officer at Palmetto GBA. Highlights include: ·  Why laboratory tests need a Z identifier code rather than just a CPT code, and how MolDX pioneered a test registry that makes it easier for payers to understand each assay, the service rendered, and whenit’s appropriate for use.· Diagnostic stewardship fits neatly into the payer perspective of covering services that are reasonable and necessary. Most of the time, Bien-Willner says, providers, patients, and payers are in alignment about what should be done.· Payers have the power of the purse: their coverage determinations shape the landscape of which tests have staying power and which don’t.· For optimal utility, Bien-Willner says, coverage policies should be written in a way that allows them to be used for future tests. Credits: Host – Angelo Rago, President of Luminex division ofDiasorin Guest – Gabriel Bien-Willner, MD, PhD, Medical Directorof MolDX and Chief Medical Officer at Palmetto GBAProducers – Stephanie Ibbotson, Sr. Director of StrategicMarketing and Market Access and Michelle Tabb, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer Editor – Britta Good, Graphic Designer, Global Marketing  Sign up to be notified for new episodes:https://us.diasorin.com/en/molecular-diagnostics?utm_source=YouTube&utm_medium=YT-description&utm_campaign=Podcast&utm_id=Corporate&utm_term=Ep6 

In this episode of Diasorin’s Beyond the Result podcast,host Angelo Rago speaks with Kyle Rodino, assistant director of the clinicalmicrobiology laboratory at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania,about the implementation of a diagnostic stewardship program.Highlights include: ·      Diagnostic stewardship offers benefits acrossthe board, from accelerating time to results for lab tests, improving patient care, reducing waste in labs and hospitals, increasing efficiency, and more.·      It’s a team sport: diagnostic stewardship can’tbe achieved by the laboratory alone. For optimal outcomes, buy-in from other departments, and practical utility is not enough, it must include perspectives from hospital administration, patient-facing clinical care teams, and laboratory management. Conversations should begin with “what’s best for the patient?” rather than “how do we reduce costs?”·      Data frameworks used in labs today weredeveloped in an era that didn’t anticipate the need for deep integration and sophisticated analysis. Data from clinical labs can be inherently messy — many tests don’t simply give a binary positive/negative result — and the situationis made worse as hospital systems grow and absorb facilities using a variety of different data platforms. Overcoming these obstacles will be important for enabling more data-centric approaches in the future.·      Looking ahead, there is great opportunity tomake diagnostic stewardship more nuanced and tailored. For example, patients might not need every target in a syndromic panel; there are many cases where asubset of those targets is more appropriate. Credits: Host – Angelo Rago, President of Luminex division ofDiasorin Guest – Kyle Rodino, Director of Rittenhouse MolecularLab and Assistant Director of Clinical Microbiology Lab at the University ofPennsylvania HospitalProducers – Stephanie Ibbotson, Sr. Director of StrategicMarketing and Market Access and Michelle Tabb, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer Editor – Britta Good, Graphic Designer, Global Marketing  Sign up to be notified for new episodes:https://us.diasorin.com/en/molecular-diagnostics?utm_source=YouTube&utm_medium=YT-description&utm_campaign=Podcast&utm_id=Corporate&utm_term=Ep5

In this episode of Diasorin’s Beyond the Result podcast, host Angelo Rago speaks with Margie Morgan, PhD, director of Clinical Microbiology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.Highlights include: - Developing testing strategies that manage costs and improve patient outcomes, all while understanding that there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach that will work for everyone. At Cedars-Sinai, a large academic medical center, the patient population is large and quite diverse, adding complexity to their testing strategies.- Collaboration is essential for clinical labs. For microbiology, it makes sense to team up with colleagues from infection control, infectious disease, and pharmacy. “Don’t try to do it by yourself,” Dr. Morgan advises.- The evolution of molecular testing means that the “more is better” approach favored by labs a decade ago is no longer practical or recommended. Today, targeted testing with the ability to reflex to a larger multiplex panel is a better approach for many clinical situations, and it helps manage costs so patients don’t go home to exorbitant testing bills.- To help physicians select the most appropriate test, Dr. Morgan’s team has gotten creative. They use soft stops and hard stops built into the test ordering software, and have even rearranged the order in which tests are presented on the screen to provide a gentle nudge toward targeted tests to help with diagnostic stewardship.Credits: Host – Angelo Rago, President of Luminex division of Diasorin Guest – Margie Morgan, PhD, director of Clinical Microbiology at Cedars-Sinai in Los AngelesProducers – Stephanie Ibbotson, Sr. Director of Strategic Marketing and Market Access and Michelle Tabb, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer Editor – Britta Good, Graphic Designer, Global Marketing Sign up to be notified for new episodes: https://us.diasorin.com/en/molecular-diagnostics?utm_source=YouTube&utm_medium=YT-description&utm_campaign=Podcast&utm_id=Corporate&utm_term=Ep4

This episode of Diasorin’s Beyond the Result podcast features host Angelo Rago chatting with Mark Zaydman, MD, PhD, assistant professor of pathology and immunology in the Division of Laboratory and Genomic Medicine of Washington University in St. Louis.Highlights include: • The transition to value-based medicine will not be feasible without clearly defining value and determining how to measure it. Until then, the focus on value is often misinterpreted as cost-cutting without a clear patient benefit.• Establishing value in laboratory medicine requires a clear understanding of how a clinician will use test results — will they lead to a material change in patient care and, ultimately, patient outcomes? Or could those test results have been easily predicted from other clinical data points, in which case they offer little new value?• With so many stakeholders across healthcare and complex relationships among them, the best way to get alignment is by putting patients at the center and focusing on better outcomes as the primary goal.• Collaborations across stakeholders, including industry partners, will be essential for creating more personalized care for patients.Credits: Host – Angelo Rago, President of Luminex division of Diasorin Guest – Mark Zaydman, MD, PhD, assistant professor of pathology and immunology in the Division of Laboratory and Genomic Medicine of Washington University in St. LouisProducers – Stephanie Ibbotson, Sr. Director of Strategic Marketing and Market Access and Michelle Tabb, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer Editor – Britta Good, Graphic Designer, Global Marketing Sign up to be notified for new episodes:

In this episode of the Beyond the Result podcast, Diasorin’s Angelo Rago chats with Nathan Ledeboer, medical director of clinical microbiology and molecular diagnostics at the Medical College of Wisconsin.Highlights include: - The shift from a painstakingly slow retrospective analysis to a faster, prospective approach has allowed the clinical laboratory team to advance its diagnostic stewardship efforts and improve testing efficiency in many clinical departments.- The main difference came from getting buy-in from the system’s executive team, which was looking for cost savings and increased efficiencies after the pandemic. Support from leadership provided access to more resources, such as an analyst who could mine more information from electronic medical records.- Securing early wins allowed the clinical lab team to generate more excitement about diagnostic stewardship and its potential to improve outcomes while reducing costs. Now, clinicians from a number of departments are working closely with the laboratory to develop decision support tools that will make it easier to order appropriate testing for each situation.Credits: Host – Angelo Rago, President of Luminex division of Diasorin Guest – Nathan Ledeboer, medical director of clinical microbiology and molecular diagnostics at the Medical College of Wisconsin Producers – Stephanie Ibbotson, Sr. Director of Strategic Marketing and Market Access and Michelle Tabb, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer Editor – Britta Good, Graphic Designer, Global Marketing Sign up to be notified for new episodes: https://info.diasorin.com/beyond-the-result-sign-uphttps://us.diasorin.com/en/molecular-diagnostics?utm_source=YouTube&utm_medium=YT-description&utm_campaign=Podcast&utm_id=Corporate&utm_term=Ep2

Welcome to the inaugural episode of Beyond the Result: Customizing Infectious Disease Diagnostics for Better Care podcast where we go deeper than the test result! Hosted by Angelo Rago at Diasorin, this podcast will feature laboratory experts with helpful perspectives on the value of diagnostic stewardship programs.In this episode, Angelo interviews James Snyder, a professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Chief of Microbiology at the University of Louisville Hospital.They dive into diagnostic stewardship, breakdown how syndromic testing has affected diagnostic stewardship, and discuss how your lab can join the diagnostic stewardship revolution.Resources: 1. Olver P, Bohn MK and Adeli K. "Central role of laboratory medicine in public health and patient care" Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM) 61, no. 4 (2023): 666-673. https://doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2022-10752. CLSI. Developing and Managing a Medical Laboratory (Test) Utilization Management Program. 1st ed. CLSI report GP49. Wayne PA: Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute; 2017.3. Gonzalez K and Amicarelli G. “Diagnostic Stewardship for Multiplex Respiratory Testing: Flexibility Is the Name of the Game.” White Paper. Diasorin. WP746579.0624.4. Ibbotson S and Parsons B. “For Respiratory Testing, a Flexible Model Helps Laboratories Address the Reimbursement Responsibility,” White Paper. Diasorin. WP765450.US.07245. Singh HK., Claeys KC, Advani SD, Ballam YJ, et al. “Diagnostic Stewardship to Improve Patient Outcomes and Healthcare-Associated Infection (HAI) Metrics.” Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology 45, no. 4 (2024): 405–11. https://doi.org/10.1017/ice.2023.284 6. Eastwood B. “How Do Data Silos Impede Patient Care and Provider Efficiency?” Health Tech Magazine. Published April 22, 2025. Web. https://healthtechmagazine.net/article/2025/04/how-do-data-silos-impede-patient-care-and-provider-efficiency Credits: Host – Angelo Rago, President of Luminex division of DiasorinGuest – James Snyder, Chief of Microbiology at the University of Louisville Hospital Producers – Stephanie Ibbotson, Sr. Director of Strategic Marketing and Market Access and Michelle Tabb, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer Editor – Britta Good, Graphic Designer, Global MarketingSign up to be notified for new episodes: https://info.diasorin.com/beyond-the-result-sign-up