COVID-19 cast a spotlight on the challenges of accessing timely and accurate laboratory testing.
When the pandemic began, Froedtert Health, a health care system headquartered in Wisconsin and its laboratory, Wisconsin Diagnostic Laboratories (WDL), were prepared. Not only was WDL the first health system laboratory in Wisconsin to turn on COVID-19 testing, it also supported the federal government and the vast majority of hospitals in the state, as well as universities across the country. The evolution of Froedtert Health’s laboratory and the breadth of WDL’s reach sparked an idea around the potential impact of developing a network of laboratories. However, a specific challenge existed: a lack of tech enablement to make this a reality.
Around the same time and in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, John Spivey, founder and CEO of Spivey & Company, Inc., which creates new ventures and transforms companies, developed a software platform and app to assist organizations and their constituents in ordering and tracking COVID-19 testing and health statuses. However, he needed a reliable partner to provide and administer testing.
WDL, Froedtert Health and HealthEco, which partners with health systems to deliver growth, began collaborating with Spivey & Company, Inc. to solve the challenge of keeping university students and employees in-person on campus through timely and accurate COVID-19 testing. This collaboration sparked excitement around pairing high-value patient-centered laboratory medicine with technology to improve patient care and expand access to healthcare.
Partnerships provided timely and accurate testing, access to subspecialty pathology and technology solutions.
Spivey & Company, Inc. has built a software platform to provide medical centers the same technological advantage that was previously only located in commercial laboratories. Spivey spent time with laboratorians learning firsthand what was needed and discussed how to integrate a technology solution into laboratories’ processes. Laboratory operational leaders were involved in designing the new software from the very first idea to the final product.
This technology solution enabled operational improvements for laboratories by connecting partners to address existing gaps in health system laboratories. By providing access to areas of subspecialty pathology, this meant laboratory testing supported a faster and more accurate diagnosis for patients. Spivey & Company, Inc. also worked with HealthEco to educate and tell the story of what “high value” means in the laboratory space.
The collaboration between HealthEco, Froedtert Health, WDL and other leading health systems, coupled with a technology solution from Spivey & Company, Inc. led to the founding of Atalan, a technology-enabled clinical partnership providing doctors and medical centers unprecedented access to a vetted network of the nation’s foremost clinical laboratories.
This partnership optimized patient-centered laboratory medicine by focusing on clinically relevant diagnostics to maximize impact for patients. Furthermore, access to the Atalan network allows health centers to improve their profitability and efficiency, creating a value proposition attracting some of the nation’s best health centers.
Atalan has the potential to improve health system finances, while driving impact and innovation around patient care.
Atalan also allows health systems across the country to access high quality diagnostics and provide better service to patients without needing to purchase expensive equipment or hire pathologists. This improves the bottom line for health systems by creating profit instead of losing revenue by referring a patient’s test elsewhere.
With the Atalan network, academic medical centers, community hospitals and health systems can access continuity of care, novel diagnostics and best-in-class expertise without interruptions to current laboratory operations. Atalan will continue to recruit and partner with best-in-class health system laboratories to scale and provide expertise, ultimately aiming to be a catalyst for growth and sustainability.
The potential impact of Atalan is groundbreaking. The ability to aggregate patient populations and commercialize laboratories can help justify additional investment and research, such as broadening clinical trials, which will continue to further clinical care. Atalan addresses multiple value propositions, continuing to drive impact for patients and open more doors to opportunities for health systems.
Laboratories are the cornerstone of modern healthcare. Today, 70% of medical decisions depend on laboratory test results and 14 billion tests are ordered annually. Expanding access to laboratory services will help improve the speed of patient diagnosis, and as a result, treatment. Additionally, laboratories typically struggle with staffing vacancies, require extensive equipment and generally account for only 2% of healthcare spend. Atalan is the answer for health systems facing the challenges of technology enablement, staffing, collaboration and synthetic scale in their laboratories. Health systems that need specialty expertise and knowledge now have another option through the Atalan network.
Benefits of Accessing the Atalan Network
- Improve patient care and outcomes through accurate, safe, timely, cost-effective and quality test results.
- Access a broad array of testing and subspecialty pathology through a single, streamlined, comprehensive platform.
- Leverage opportunities to access capacity for revenue generation and growth.
- Expand access to new markets for laboratory outreach.
- Establish partnerships around optimization and best practice integration.
About Atalan
Atalan is a technology-enabled clinical partnership providing doctors and medical centers unprecedented access to a vetted network of the nation’s foremost clinical laboratories. Through a coalition of leading academic medical center laboratories and subspecialty pathologists, Atalan expands access to high-value laboratory services, ultimately improving patient diagnostics and care. Atalan is a HealthEco portfolio company headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisc., founded in partnership with Froedtert Health and other leading health systems.
To access the network of laboratory partners, any medical center or provider can request a demo of the technology and learn more by reaching out to access@atalan.com or visiting atalan.com.