Pathology Associates Medical Laboratories, the Spokane-based national reference laboratory, has hired a new senior scientist, Dr. Heather Colburn, to head up Cinch, its consumer-based product line, says Dr. Francisco Velázquez, president and CEO of PAML.

The company plans to launch that line late this summer.

Colburn began her role in PAML’s Science, Technology, and Innovation Group in late April. That group, Velázquez says, was formed to investigate new technologies and methods and bring them to PAML.

“Their responsibility is to engage on a national level and identify new technology, new tools, and new advances in science and determine whether any of those have a synergy with PAML’s direction,” Velázquez says. 

The Cinch product line will merge with PAML’s existing mail-order system, Results Direct, and also will offer new testing options for consumers. With Results Direct, customers can go online and order testing products, and then go to a designated collection clinic to have their blood drawn.

With Cinch, PAML will be offering an at-home collection system, known as the dry blood spot method. This method uses a finger stick to produce a drop of blood, which then is absorbed by a modified filter paper collector and sent back to PAML for testing.  

Part of Colburn’s duties at PAML will be investigating and developing these at-home collection methods, Velázquez says.

“Dr. Colburn has been involved in a variety of areas and markets where the development of new tests (and) methodologies to identify specific substances was key to her research and clinical activity,” he says, adding, “That fits very well with our desire to have someone in house who goes from basic research, to a more clinical application, to a consumer application.”

Prior to be recruited by the laboratory, Colburn spent nine years as a scientist at Richland, Wash.-based Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). Colburn holds doctorate and master’s degrees in analytical chemistry from the University of Washington.

Under Cinch, consumers will have three choices for specimen collection, Velázquez says. The first is through Results Direct and involves the customer going to a collection station. Alternatively, PAML employs phlebotomists who can collect blood from consumers at their convenience. The third option will be the at-home, dry blood spot method, Velázquez says.

“With Cinch, we will have all three different avenues available, so consumers will have a choice,” Velázquez says. 

In anticipation for the launch of Cinch, PAML has run two informational campaigns, Velázquez says, and also is building its online ecommerce infrastructure. 

Once the Cinch product is fully launched, consumers will be able to purchase online gift cards and physical gift cards as well for the products, Velázquez says. 

“We’re looking at a fairly comprehensive way for people to have access to testing (options) that are appropriate to their lifestyle,” he says. 

The Cinch product line already has six employees who are dedicated to it full time, Velázquez says, along with three outside contract employees and one additional PAML employee who works half-time on Cinch.

 “It looks like a typical high-tech startup … within our corporate headquarters,” he says.

Separately, PAML announced last month that TriHealth, one of the largest integrated health systems in Cincinnati, Ohio, has selected the Spokane company as its primary reference laboratory. 

Through that arrangement, PAML says, nonprofit TriHealth will have access to its broad spectrum of esoteric tests, technical expertise, and connectivity services.

Terms of the transaction weren’t disclosed.

PAML said in a news release that TriHealth encompasses four hospitals, three ambulatory networks, and a research institute, and is the Cincinnati area’s fifth-largest employer, with 11,400 employees.