FREE WEBINAR


Transforming Bacteremia Care with Rapid AST:

Real-World Insights from a Prestigious Reference Lab


Join this insightful webinar to explore how rapid AST (rAST) can transform infectious disease management—improving patient care while optimizing lab efficiency.

July 23, 2025 1pm EST


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60-Minute Webinar Sponsored By

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Bacteremia remains a deadly clinical threat, with mortality rates between 11% and 32%. Timely, targeted antibiotic therapy is critical—yet increasing resistance, particularly among Gram-negative pathogens, is making empirical treatment riskier and less effective.

Join us for, "Transforming Bacteremia Care with Rapid AST — Real-World Insights from a Prestigious Reference Lab," an essential webinar exploring how rapid antimicrobial susceptibility testing (rAST) is transforming patient care. On July 23, 2025 at 1pm EST, Vittal Prakash Ponraj, Ph.D., SM(ASCP)CM, Technical Director of Hospital Microbiology at Quest Diagnostics, will present findings from a real-world evaluation of an FDA-cleared, high-throughput AST platform that delivers results without sample pre-processing.

Using clinical specimens from two hospitals, Dr. Ponraj will share valuable insights into how rAST can reduce time-to-therapy, lower healthcare costs, and support more confident decision-making.

Key Learning Objectives:



  • Understand the clinical need for rapid MIC and SIR data from positive blood cultures. 

  • Explore the considerations for implementation of rapid antibiotic susceptibility testing for bacteremia patients.

  • Evaluate the impact of ease of use of novel technologies when making adoption decisions. 
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Expert Speaker

Vittal Prakash Ponraj Ph.D., SM(ASCP)CM

Technical Director, Hospital Microbiology

Quest Diagnostics, Chantilly, Virginia

Dr. Vittal Prakash Ponraj is the Technical Director of Microbiology at Quest Diagnostics in Chantilly, VA, and oversees hospital microbiology laboratories for a major multi-hospital healthcare system in the Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia region. He holds a Ph.D. in Medical Microbiology and has completed postdoctoral research and clinical fellowships in Clinical and Molecular Microbiology at renowned U.S. institutions, including Baylor College of Medicine, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Rice University, and Brown University. Dr. Ponraj has successfully led the testing phase of several Clinical trials of Molecular IVD assays in microbiology laboratory involving physicians, laboratory professionals and commercial diagnostic companies that were submitted and successfully approved by FDA for commercial use. He also serves as a Peer reviewer and Editorial board member of ASM Journals and a CAP Inspector for CLIA Laboratories.

Who should attend?

  • Clinical Microbiologist
  • PhD & Medical Laboratory Scientist
  • MD & PharmD
  • Laboratory Managers
Register Now

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