As the Vice President of Research & Development, Dr. Vijay Singh (PhD, University of North Texas) oversees many of the laboratory tests and procedures that form the core services HealthTrackRx offers. Specifically, Dr. Singh designs the processes that HealthTrackRx uses to detect and identify pathogens within patient specimens. This work involves, among other things, reading and conducting scientific research, creating infectious disease assays that provide quick and accurate results, optimizing laboratory workflow, and crafting efficient molecular testing panels that meet the changing needs of patients and clinicians.

“Any time you’re using molecular tools, mainly DNA and RNA, as points of detection for pathogens, that’s molecular diagnostics,” Dr. Singh told me in our recent conversation. This approach is used by the Infectious Disease Technical laboratory, where, as Dr. Singh explained, their approach is “based mainly on PCR (polymerase chain reaction) for detecting a variety of pathogens.

Under Dr. Singh’s guidance, HealthTrackRx offers syndromic panels that test for most pathogens known to cause a set of symptoms. In this way, if a physician determines it is necessary to identify a specific pathogen because the patient’s symptoms are so severe, then the physician can order a single panel that tests for the set of pathogens that frequently cause those symptoms. “That’s the idea for those large panels,” Dr. Singh stated. “Within the limitations of the technology, we are able to provide the maximum amount of information to the physician so that he or she is able to make the best care and treatment decisions for their patient.”