The most memorable day in my career was the day I was recruited to the BC Cancer Agency as a post-doctoral fellow to work on advanced prostate cancer. It was June 1995. My supervisor, Dr. Nicolas Bruchovsky, was a clinician scientist treating prostate cancer patients. Two years of intense training with him and his staff provided me exposure to patients, basic scientists, pathologists, urologists, and medical and radiation oncologists. This learning environment plus my background in biochemistry/molecular biology were the catalyst for an idea I had about why the current treatments for advanced prostate cancer failed. It was the start of a 20 year journey of research to pursue that idea. It never occurred to me at the time that this path would lead to me starting a biotechnology company and taking my discoveries into clinical trials.

In 1998, the world believed that advanced prostate cancer was independent of androgen and independent of the androgen receptor, a transcription factor that mediates the effects of androgen. I did not share that view. To me, the data did not support this conclusion.

In 1998, the BC Cancer Agency recruited me as a Senior Scientist and shortly afterwards I was appointed Honorary Assistant Professor at UBC. Fortunately I was included in a large Program Grant from NIH with the University of Washington led by Dr. Paul Lange. These regular meetings were exciting with much debate and exposure to translational research and clinical trials on prostate cancer. Being a part of this large program grant had an enormous impact on me.

In 1998, the world believed that advanced prostate cancer was independent of androgen and independent of the androgen receptor, a transcription factor that mediates the effects of androgen. I did not share that view. To me, the data did not support this conclusion. So while most academic institutions and drug companies were focused on developing chemotherapies and looking at survival genes based on the theory that the androgen receptor was irrelevant, I was proposing that the androgen receptor still played a role in driving this then-called “androgen-independent” prostate cancer.

On October 1st of 2015, the provincial government enacted Bill 7, the Laboratory Services Act (LSA). This is a very significant shift in the control of publicly funded laboratory services. The LSA replaces the Medicare Protection Act and the Hospital Insurance act as the authority for insuring laboratory services and consolidates the responsibilities for the governance, funding and service delivery oversight of all publicly funded laboratory services in BC. Through the LSA, the Minister of Health or his/her designate approves all labs and the professions who can order testing. He/she has the power to enter or exit agreements for lab testing. This includes the responsibility to develop testing guidelines with audit and sanction provisions.

BC’s Agency for Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (BCAPLM or Lab Agency) was formed, initially under the control of PHSA but then transferred to the new independent, BC Clinical Support Services Society (BCCSS) as of April 2016

To accomplish these obligations, BC’s Agency for Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (BCAPLM or Lab Agency) was formed, initially under the control of PHSA but then transferred to the new independent, BC Clinical Support Services Society (BCCSS) as of April 2016. The BCAPLM is the first member of the clinical division of the BCCSS and reports through the BCCSS Board to the Ministry of Health.

The Provincial Blood Coordinating Office (PBCO), a very successful, long standing organization is also part of the Lab Agency. The Lab Agency has been mandated by the Minister of Health to undertake and complete by November 2017, a strategic service delivery plan for lab services, including both inpatient and outpatient, throughout BC. This will address a quality framework, human resource planning, development of funding models and delineation of the informatics requirements.

Valerie was born in Ottawa, but raised in St John’s, Newfoundland, the eldest child of four. She was a gifted student and her scholastic success led naturally to ambitions of medical school. In Newfoundland, one could enter medical school after two years of post-secondary education, and so Val graduated from Memorial University at a young age and then finished her rotating internship at the University of Toronto. She subsequently entered the internal medicine program at UBC but began to doubt that internal medicine was right for her.

One summer day, after a particularly weak moment following a full weekend on call for medicine, she followed a specimen down to the pathology department and met Bill Chase, the acting head of pathology at the time. After a brief discussion, he gave Val an application and launched her pathology trajectory. After completing her pathology fellowship training at UBC, Val did a year of ophthalmic pathology at the Institute of Ophthalmology at the University of London and a year of ophthalmic pathology at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary at Harvard University.