Alfred Palma MS, MT(ASCP) Managing Partner

Mr. Palma has over 35 years of Diagnostics Industry experience garnered through a variety of management and leadership positions held within the Clinical Laboratory field. He started as a bench technologist working all clinical departments including arterial blood gas testing and EKG’s. Within a few years he became management at Southampton hospital which is an 1199 union laboratory and by the age of 25 was the assistant director of the Laboratory.

It was at that time, about 1984, that Southampton embarked on one of the first Laboratory Extended Services Programs(LESP) in the country. But, the had to clear one major hurdle, there was no computer technology within the Laboratory yet. It was at this point that Mr. Palma used his computer science expertise to solve the problem. He used the RS232 ports on the Dade Paramax, an Ortho ELT-8, and the Ames Clinitek to connect these instruments to a multiplexor which then connected to an IBM PC running Clovis Hummingbird software. It was a hit and the Laboratory was able to serve the physicians in the community.

Shortly thereafter he was recruited to become Director at Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip, New York. Within a few years the Laboratory was running efficiently enough to start and Extended Services program. It was also at this time that he was voted in as Chairman of the Nassau/Suffolk Hospital Councils Laboratory Committee. It was there that he lead extensive negotiations with all vendors supplying goods and services to the 23 member hospital council. These included Blood products, capital equipment, all reagents for all departments, and Reference Laboratory services.

The Laboratory Extended Services Program(LESP or Outreach) was a highly visible program within the Catholic network of hospital. This led to Mr. Palma being recruited as Regional Director for the Catholic network of hospitals and eventually led to the position of Regional VP for Catholic Health Services of Long Island(CHSLI).
Currently, as Managing Partner of Diagnostics Solutions, he helps Clinical Laboratories and the Diagnostics Industry deal with the complexities of the regulatory agencies, consolidate serivices and developing new business initiatives to help business growth.