Examining Types of Drug Testing

Christian Fletcher is the CEO of LifeBrite Laboratories and has been with the company since 2014. Soe of the services that Christian Fletcher and LifeBrite Laboratories offer to their clients is drugs and alcohol testing.

An individual may require drug testing for various reasons, such as employment requirements, healthcare needs, and legal reasons. The most common form of drug testing is done with urine. Urine screening is cost-effective in large numbers and can detect alcohol and drugs such as amphetamine, cocaine, and opiates.

Saliva screening is another fairly common method that is used and is done with a basic swab. This test can find traces of alcohol and drugs from a few days prior and is very effective. Blood testing is the most reliable way to test for alcohol and drugs, but it is time-consuming and costly.

A newer test on the market is in the form of a patch that collects sweat. The patch is left on for a two-week period and can detect drugs and alcohol through the sweat of the individual. Breath testing is well-known in law enforcement, and it is often used to prevent and deter drinking and driving. 

Personalized Medicine and Diagnostics Forged

Based in Atlanta, Christian Fletcher guides LifeBrite Laboratories, an accredited medical laboratory with an array of services spanning chemistry testing, toxicology, and molecular pathology. In the latter area, Christian Fletcher and his team are pursuing a diagnostic testing vision of personalized patient care and precision medicine.

As described in Scientific American, new technologies are enabling physicians to detect and quantify a wide range of biomarkers that signal a disorder is present. They can then categorize patients within subgroups that reflect prognosis, disease susceptibility, and the likelihood of response to specific treatments. Therapies are designed, prescribed, and implemented based on subgroup genetic makeup, in ways that reduce adverse effect risks such as toxicity and improve outcomes.

With the FDA using the term “companion diagnostics” to describe this link between personalized medicine and pharmacogenomics, new drugs are also being developed to target people with specific genotypes and genetic mutations. LifeBrite Laboratories is at the diagnostic forefront of such genetic variability approaches through its molecular pathology capacities that encompass carrier testing, inherited cancer screening, microbiome analysis, and pharmacogenomics.

Molecular Pathology & Personalized Medicine

Christian Fletcher serves as the CEO of LifeBrite Laboratories, a medical research and testing company that was voted the best laboratory in Atlanta in 2016 and 2017. In the role, Christian Fletcher leads an organization that takes a customer-focused approach to laboratory testing. LifeBrite Laboratories offers services in a range of areas, including molecular pathology.

Molecular pathology is concerned with DNA analysis and with the molecular building blocks comprising organs, tissues, and bodily fluids. Health care providers may use tests involving molecular pathology to assess a patient’s level of cancer risk or as an aid to prenatal diagnosis. Other tests detect neurological disorders and inherited diseases.

Molecular pathology is also used to provide personalized medicine. Beyond being a diagnostic tool, molecular pathology is used to study treatment and the response to treatment on a cellular and molecular level. This level of information allows for the creation of personalized treatments that are based on an individual’s specific genetic makeup, lifestyle, environment, and the kind of microorganisms, such as bacteria and viruses, present in the system.

The Fletcher Fund for Equality and Education

The founder and CEO of LifeBrite Laboratories in Atlanta, Georgia, Christian Fletcher is known for his many successes in investing in and operating startup businesses, particularly in the healthcare industry. Outside of his responsibilities at LifeBrite Laboratories, Christian Fletcher gives back to the community. He and his wife Amber established the Fletcher Fund for Equality and Education to help students in underserved communities.

The Fletcher couple recalled the challenges that they experienced in achieving higher education while growing up in a working-class community in Mobile, Georgia. They have the scores and the grades to qualify for scholarships in the best colleges and universities in the country. But, going to college without the guidance of a mentor to help them navigate through the complexities of higher education proved to be a great barrier to hurdle. So, the couple decided to create the Fletcher Fund for Equality and Education to make it easier for exceptional students residing in communities like the ones they grew up in to navigate through higher education.

The Fletcher Fund focuses on providing scholarships, mentorship, and other academic support to underserved students in Georgia. Most of the students that the Fletcher Fund supports have already demonstrated dedication and drive to succeed even beyond higher education by excelling in their academic performances, and that the only threat to success is a lack of financial resources from their families.