Jackie Pirone, OraSure Technologies |
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We invite you to sit back, relax, and join us for a great interview with: Jackie Pirone, Director Marketing SAT and IRC,OraSure Technologies
Jackie has worked in the drug testing industry for over 20 years with companies that provide drug testing products and services. Prior to joining the drug testing industry, she worked for a small diagnostics company that manufactured and sold women’s healthcare products.
Generally speaking, when companies ask about background screening they also wanted drug testing services, so the two really go hand in hand. Given this reality, Jackie expressed that it was a natural fit for her to work with background screening companies since so many are involved with the drug testing industry. She added that it is really great to be able to work together with so many background screening companies to offer end user customers a full product offering to make their lives so much easier.
She acknowledges that while she doesn’t work directly in the background screening industry, she often works with companies and individuals who are. Drug testing and background screening go together and complement each other. It’s important for employers to know that they are hiring the right people and both of these type checks helps them achieve this goal. With a very serious look, she noted that, “If the combination of background screens and drug testing indentifies just one person who may cause the employer potential problems, then she feels like we’ve helped them to prevent possible theft and perhaps even issues with production problems.
With this thought in mind, she shared that OraSure Technologies develops, manufactures and markets oral fluid specimen collection devices, diagnostic products, and other medical devices. As one of the pioneers of oral fluid testing technologies, OraSure’s mission has been to provide their customers with the most technologically advances solutions to allow them to rapidly and accurately diagnose more people so they get the care they need: whether you work in public health, a hospital, a corruption or small business, drug treatment, or the criminal justice system; whether you are researching different products or exploring different technologies to better a workflow. OraSure offers products and services that can help improve people’s lives. The Intercept® oral fluid drug test is an FDA cleared laboratory-based oral fluid drug testing system that enables accurate testing for drugs of abuse. Companies choose Intercept® for their testing programs for its fast and simple collection process, eliminated the costs and dignity issues related to sample collection, reduction of sample tampering, and accurate results.
She beamed as she shared that OraSure is very proud to be the first company to manufacture and sell an over the counter oral fluid HIV testing kit, available at your local drugstores. The OraQuick HIC test has helped to identify over 5000 previously undiagnosed positive HIV patients in the past 12 months. “We feel very good about having a product that can help people know their HIV status that might not otherwise be aware. We also have recently acquired a company that manufactures and sells DNA testing kits, which are available to determine ancestry history or genetic profiles. We are excited to be able to offer such innovative products that can help people from a completely different perspective than some of our core products.”
Jackie added that OraSure works directly with background screening companies and TPAs regarding all aspects of the drug testing process. “From choosing the right product, to training personnel and policy updates, we are with you every step of the way. We feel personal services and relationships are so important, especially when you are dealing with such sensitive topics as background screening and drug testing.” She emphasized that, “We pride ourselves in working very positively together with our background screening partners,” and gladly shared a link that includes what some of their partners say about OraSure: https://orc.orasure.com/default.aspx?pageid=1567
Looking towards the future, she thinks the consolidation she is seeing with labs and TPAs will have some impact on background screening companies. With a deep sigh she said, “We’ll probably see some ‘super-sized’ background screening companies emerge and some smaller ones possibly change the way they operate to compete.”
As we moved towards ending the interview, she shared that she recently read “Life After Life” by Kate Atkinson. It was a book that made her think about what could happen if you had a chance to repeat portions of your life over and over and possibly change things within the course of your life and history. Speaking of history, she noted that a person she would have liked to have an opportunity to meet is Thomas Edison. She said, “He developed so many things that greatly influences life around the world; without him, the way we listen to music, watch movies and TV may have been completely different.” Finally, she shared her favorite quotes: “It’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” – Abraham Lincoln and “You become what you believe.” – Oprah Winfrey
Click here to learn more about OraSure Technologies
Contact Jackie at jpirone@orasure.com or 882-1820 ext 3019