Molecular Biology Screener at Portage Health

Copper Country doctors will soon be able to treat patients at a molecular level, which will shorten hospital stays and improve their treatment.

Portage Health in Hancock bought a ‘genExpert’ machine in early January from a California company.

That company has spent the last 2 months training hospital staff on how to use it.

The hospital plans on testing it on patients within a few weeks.

The machine is able to analyze a patient’s DNA to determine where an infection lies.

Portage Health lab director Richard Kangas and pathologist Dr. Petio Kotov say this is a vast improvement over the old technology.

The machine cost nearly $60,000 and a Portage Health Foundation grant covered that cost.