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Medical Automation Systems
Creates RALS^® Advisory Board

Point-of-Care Leaders to Provide Expertise on
New Product Development Strategies

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA, November 12, 2004 – Medical Automations Systems, the leader in information management for point-of-care testing, has announced the creation of the RALS® Advisory Board. This Board consists of leaders in the field of point of care testing from across the country. 

“At MAS, we believe that the future growth in the use of point of care testing in the hospital environment depends on the continued development of innovative connectivity solutions which add value to the testing process in terms of quality, efficiency, patient safety and patient care,” said Gregory A. Menke, president and chief executive office of Medical Automation Systems. “Receiving guidance and input from the innovative POCT leaders on our Board ensures that the solutions we develop will truly address the needs of software vendors, laboratorians, device users, clinicians and the information system staff throughout any given Institution.” said Menke.

The RALS Advisory Board brings with them an unparalleled wealth of experience in point-of-care testing. Current members are:

David Colard, St. Lukes Hospital in Kansas City, MO, has been involved in point-of-care testing (POCT) and connectivity since 1996 and through the years has worked with nursing, IT, and laboratory to make team decisions regarding implementation of POCT programs. He brings extensive experience in working with numerous instrument manufacturers, as well as data management and interfacing vendors, providing ideas and feedback for the improvement of POCT systems.

Tim Deen, MLT(ASCP) and MT(HEW), Medical City Dallas Hospital in Dallas, TX, has been a RALS user since 2000 and has been involved in medical technology since 1975.  He is currently  employed by LabCorp in a contract managed lab at Medical City in Dallas.

Kim Gregory, Boston Medical Center in Boston, MA assumed the newly created position of POCT Coordinator in 1998 and has implemented several different instruments with connectivity.  After taking on oversight of a large rapid HIV program, Kim was promoted to POCT Specialist with the responsibility of standardization/consultation to four affiliated health centers and oversight of a part time POCT Coordinator.  She has participated on the Policy and Practices committee for 3 years and is a founding member of the Bay State POCT Collaborative.

Felice Jakubiak, Umass Memorial Medical Center in Worchester, MA, has been a Medical Technologist for 36 years, and has worked in all the departments of hospital laboratory both as a generalist (performing all laboratory testing and evaluation) and as designated staff in the chemistry and blood bank departments.  She is currently the Manager of POCT testing and of the Clinical Laboratory on the Memorial Site of the UMass Memorial Medical Center.

Stephen Kahn Ph.D., DABCC, FACB Loyola Medical Center in Maywood, IL is Vice Chair, Laboratory Medicine, Professor of Pathology, Cell Biology, Neurobiology and Anatomy and directs the Core, Toxicology and Near Patient Testing areas of Loyola's laboratory.  He is active in many professional associations, particularly AACC where he is a Past-President (1998), and presently chairs the Program Coordinating Commission and Troponin I Subcommittee.  He has received numerous awards, including the AACC 2001 Award for Outstanding Contributions through Service to the Profession of Clinical Chemistry and has more than 100 published articles, chapters and abstracts.

Frederick L Kiechle, MD, PhD, William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, MI is Chairman of the Department of clinical Pathology, Medical Director for the Beaumont Reference Laboratory, and Associate Professor of Pathology at the Wayne State School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan. Certified by the American Board of Pathology in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology Dr. Kiechle spent a one year fellowship in clinical chemistry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, his research lead to the further characterization of potential intracellular mediators of insulin action.  He received a Hartford Foundation Fellowship to support this research for the three years while he was an Assistant Professor of Pathology at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

John LaRosa, Lewis Gale Medical Center in Salem, VA has 28 years of laboratory experience, and for the past four years has been the Point-of-Care Coordinator at Lewis-Gale, working closely with the Diabetes and Cardiology patient areas.

Robyn Medeiros, El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, CA has been a proponent of vendor neutral connectivity since she heard her first RALS presentation in 1998.  She has been a Clinical Lab Specialist for 20 years and has been the QA/POCT/Education manager at El Camino Hospital for the past eight years.  She was a founding member and has chaired the Bay Area POC group since 1996 – a group that has grown from 16 members to well over 100.  Her POCT program currently small but will soon be moving into the OR, ER, NICU, Coag Clinic and feels strongly that connectivity will be a welcome partner in their growth. 

Deb Norkett Northeast Medical Center in Concord, NC is the POCC for a 450-bed facility and has been worked with MAS on several beta-testing projects in the past. She has been at NEMC 25 years, 4 years as a rotating-shift generalist, 14 years as a microbiology bench tech and the last 7 years as Education/POC coordinator. She is also in charge of education, performance improvement, inspection compliance and safety.

Theresa Todoroff, John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek, CA has worked the bench for nine years before becoming involved in POCT several years ago.  Since then, she has been involved in programs that have brought in RALS connectivity, updated SureStepFlexx glucose meters throughout the hospital, updated the Hemochron Sig +, and implemented i-STATs in the Emergency Department. 

Herald Waldon, Florida Hospital in Orlando, FL, has been at Florida Hospital for 28 years, the last eight of which has been as POCC Florida Hospital and its seven hospital system. Prior to that, he worked as a bench tech for five years, and supervised the Stat Lab and Surgical lab at Florida Hospital for 15 years.

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About Medical Automation Systems Medical Automation Systems (www.medicalautomation.com/) is the leading supplier of information management systems for point-of-care testing with over 600 installations throughout the U.S. and Canada.  The company's flagship product is RALS®-Plus (Remote Automated Laboratory Systems), a multi-instrument, vendor-independent information management system for POCT.  MAS is a charter and founding member of the Connectivity Industry Consortium (CIC) which ensures that RALS products will always reflect the latest in industry standards.  The company is privately held and is based in Charlottesville, Virginia.