The opiate crisis has reached epidemic proportions, evidenced by more than 17,000 deaths a year and $504 billion in economic costs in the U.S. alone¹. Healthcare providers and laboratories need highly specific tests that accurately detect drugs of abuse in patient-care, employment and athletic and prescription drug monitoring settings.

In this webinar, Dr. Mary Mayo discusses two highly sensitive assays—the Syva® EMIT® II Plus 6-Acetylmorphine (6-AM) and Buprenorphine (BUP)—that expand available options for drugs-of-abuse testing.

After attending this webinar, you will be able to describe the:

• Differences in opioid drugs
• Magnitude of the opioid epidemic
• Reasons to use specific drug tests related to opioids
• Performance characteristics of the Syva EMIT II Plus 6-AM and BUP assays

Presenter: Mary Mayo, Ph.D.

Dr. Mary Mayo is a medical affairs manager with Beckman Coulter Diagnostics, with more than 25 years’ experience in the clinical laboratory. This includes twelve years as a laboratory director, nine years as director of clinical chemistry at a tertiary-care academic hospital and three years as the laboratory director of a commercial laboratory. Dr. Mayo holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Hope College, Holland, MI, and a master’s degree and Ph.D. in biological chemistry from the University of Michigan. She is a diplomate of the American Board of Clinical Chemistry and is board certified as a bioanalyst clinical laboratory director by the American Board of Bioanalysis. After living all over the world as a military spouse, Dr. Mayo resides in Nashville, TN.

¹. CDC. “Opioid Overdoses Treated in Emergency Departments." https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/opioid-overdoses/. Accessed 6 Mar 2018.