Episode 27: How Datapult is Tackling the Challenge of Electronic Lab Reporting

In this episode of the Informonster Podcast, Charlie Harp sits down with Patina Zarcone, Director, and Millie Malai, Technical Project Manager of Datapult, an APHL company. They discuss how Datapult and Clinical Architecture came together to create a system that would get lab data to public health faster, especially during the pandemic. They discuss the impact of this system on the timeliness of data for emerging infectious diseases, and how converting data from CSV to HL7 v2.5.1 was a game changer to ensure that public health received the highest quality data.

About Patina Zarcone
Patina (Zarcone) Gagne serves as the Association of Public Health Laboratories’ (APHL) Director of Datapult, a new APHL company, and has been with APHL approaching 21 years.  When joining APHL in 2003, Patina was the only informatics staff member focused primarily on helping governmental public health laboratories acquire laboratory information management systems.  Today, she is running Datapult, a company that made a major impact on the pandemic by reporting COVID laboratory results electronically to public health.  Prior to her tenure at APHL, Patina worked first in biotechnology as a bench scientist in gene therapy for Biogen Inc., in Cambridge MA then went on to work for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, State Laboratory Institute helping run operations for the mosquito borne disease surveillance program. 

Patina has an undergraduate degree (BA) in Biology from Boston University and a Master’s Degree in Public Health (MPH), specializing in Health Service Administration also from Boston University.

Patina lives in Newbury, MA right next to the Atlantic ocean with her husband, Joel Gagne Esq. and 4 children.

About Millie Malai
Millie is the Technical Project Manager for Datapult and oversees technical development and implementation across Datapult’s service, including Expanded ELR. She has been in the field of public health informatics for over a decade, with experience in syndromic surveillance systems, laboratory information systems, immunization registries, electronic laboratory reporting, and health data interoperability. She holds a Master of Public Health with a concentration in applied public health informatics from Emory University, Rollins School of Public Health. 

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