Millennium Laboratories Announces Laboratory Responsibility Pledge

SAN DIEGO, March 21, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Millennium Laboratories announced today the Clinical Laboratory Responsibility Pledge, a declaration setting the course for more responsible and ethical business practices in the medication monitoring industry. The Pledge outlines the principles to which Millennium adheres and to which the company challenges every clinical laboratory in the pain management industry to adopt.

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"Ethical practices and compliance are an intrinsic part of Millennium's DNA. Our actions over the past several years to advocate, legislate, and if required, litigate in support of a responsible code of conduct demonstrates this commitment," said Howard Appel, President of Millennium Laboratories. "The time has come, however, to make a public proclamation of our commitment to these standards and to encourage every clinical laboratory in our industry to do the same. The Clinical Laboratory Responsibility Pledge speaks directly to our customers so they know that when they work with Millennium, they work with a company that upholds the highest in ethical standards, compliance and business practices."

The Pledge builds on the Office of Inspector General's Compliance Program for Clinical Laboratories and calls upon all medication monitoring laboratories to join Millennium in immediately taking steps that institute transparency and responsibility through compliance to ethical standards and self-governance.

 These principles include, but are not limited to, the following:

• adhering to the highest of ethical standards of engagement with our customers to create a positive outcome for patients
• abiding by each state's specific compliance requirements, regulations and laws
• not offering a service that would place the healthcare professional, the practice or the patient at risk
• substantiating claims with valid science and never falsely promoting our products or services 

"These principles should already constitute standard operating procedure for every laboratory in this industry," said Appel. "Unfortunately, they are often disregarded by other laboratories in the pursuit of profit.  As a result, physician practices are put at risk, patient care may be compromised, heath care dollars are wasted, and the industry as a whole is undervalued. Our industry should not – and Millennium will not – idly stand by while these actions continue."

A key component of the Pledge is the adoption of clinical laboratories guidelines to be established by an upcoming stakeholder summit comprised of leading pain and physician associations, regulators and other stakeholders. The summit will be chaired by Dr. Richard Payne, Professor of Medicine and Divinity at Duke University, a highly-respected expert in pain, palliative care and bioethics, who also served as past chair of the American Pain Society.

"The Clinical Laboratory Responsibility Pledge announced by Millennium puts forth excellent examples of ethical initiatives that can lead the medication monitoring industry to a higher level of integrity in business practices and patient care," said Richard Payne, MD.  "I look forward to convening the stakeholders working group as soon as practicable with the purpose of delineating and disseminating an ethical code of conduct broadly accepted by the range of national pain societies; increasing awareness of expected laboratory conduct among physicians and other prescribers, and dramatically reducing the number of unethical practices by those companies seeking an unfair advantage."

The Clinical Laboratory Responsibility Pledge and Millennium's Commitment to Compliance policy are publicly available on the company website at www.millenniumlabs.com.

About Millennium Laboratories:
Millennium Laboratories is the leading research-based clinical diagnostic company dedicated to improving the lives of people suffering from pain. The company provides healthcare professionals with scientific data, clinical tools and services that help personalize treatment plans to improve clinical outcomes and patient safety.

The company utilizes leading technology and proprietary methodologies to provide some of the fastest and most reliable medication monitoring and drug detection results via both urine drug testing (UDT) and oral fluid testing. Test results are backed by expert toxicologists, clinical guidance and dedicated customer service.

Millennium's commitment to advancing the science and the field of pain management also includes a strong focus on the advancement of industry research, education and advocacy.  Through its association with the Millennium Research Institute, a nonprofit national research center , it has quickly gained respect as a leader in toxicology, pharmacology and pain management research and education, providing healthcare professionals with innovative research to advance the assessment and management of chronic pain.

SOURCE Millennium Laboratories