Trident Labs: Using Urine Samples to Make Drug Treatment More Effective

BY ALISHA BROWN, DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS, MICHBIOSOURCE MATERIALS PROVIDED BY TRIDENT LABS

According to the Mayo Clinic up to 70% of Americans take at least one prescription medication every day adding up to more than 4 billion prescriptions filled every year.

For maximum treatment efficacy, most medications must be taken at least 80% of the time, yet 50% of prescriptions are not taken as directed. The result? More than 125,000 preventable deaths each year, and up to $300 billion in avoidable healthcare costs.

On average, patients with chronic conditions who do not adhere to their medications spend $4,000 to $8,000 more each year on healthcare costs than patients who do and, studies show, that for every 10% improvement in medication adherence the average patient, regardless of condition, will reduce their annual health care spending by up to 29%. Known as “America’s other drug problem” medication non-adherence is a major concern for practitioners and patients alike; Trident Laboratories is part of the solution.

Located in Holland, Michigan, Trident Labs provides urine and oral fluid testing services that, among other things, helps practitioners monitor medication adherence in their patients.

“For most people,” says Lonnie Riley, Chief Operating Officer at Trident, “when they think of urine samples they think of another kind of drug testing – which we do – but they don’t often consider that a doctor could be hoping the results will show that specific drugs are in your system, rather than checking for drugs they wish weren’t there.”

Riley continued, “Getting the right dose of a prescription medication is already a challenge for practitioners since individual patients react to and metabolize drugs in different ways and at different rates. When you add in the complication that almost half of all prescriptions are not taken as directed, you can begin to understand the complexities of achieving success in treatment.”

In all, Trident tests for 123+ compounds most of which fall into the categories of pain management (opiates and opioids), behavioral medicines (antipsychotics and antidepressants), drugs of abuse (heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamines), and emerging drugs (carfentanil, synthetic marijuana, kratom, etc). For each test, clients have options for how the results are presented, depending on their specific need, through flexible reporting.

Founded in 2015, the company resides in the Michigan State University Bioeconomy Institute building. In addition to the 123+ medication compounds, Trident also offers a kit for PFAS water testing in drinking water.

“At Trident we want to make sure we are providing testing services that have the biggest impact on the health and well-being of people within our state and around the nation. Medication adherence, drug use and addiction, and PFAS chemicals impacting water safety all have potentially major impacts on public health; providing practitioners, law enforcement personnel, businesses and the general public with those specific tests ensures that they can make informed decisions about treatment plans and interventions,” says Riley. “And, we can turn testing around at industry-leading speeds with most of our results being returned to the customer within 48 hours meaning that important healthcare decisions aren’t being delayed due to testing.”

Medication adherence is a complicated problem, studies show that forgetfulness is the largest single contributor to nonadherence with 70% percent of patients citing it as the reason they stopped taking their medication, with costs and potential side-effects both cited 10% of the time.

While lab testing cannot address the root causes of nonadherence, it can arm practitioners with the information necessary to intervene with individual patients, and that is where Trident is right at home, tackling big problems one test at a time.

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