Interpath Services has a dedicated National Sales Team supported by their technical expertise, depth of knowledge and training in their respective industries.
We spoke to Account Manager Karne Holdaway who about how exactly she strives to help her customers, the trends and challenges that she's seeing in the industry and what she's looking forward to in the future.
What is your career background that makes you suited to being an Interpath Specialist?
I began my career in cancer research, specifically in adopting, developing and qualifying cell-based assays supporting drug discovery. One of the techniques I employed was flow cytometry, which over the years has gone through an enormous expansion, being adopted in many areas of science and healthcare.
Using this expertise, when I moved into industry, I was able apply and quickly expand my knowledge by supporting customers in a more technical sense to deliver solutions in both the scientific and healthcare settings.
What is your area of expertise?
As an Account Manager, my role is to responsively provide consumable solutions to clients across the industries that Interpath serves.
Using my knowledge of market challenges, I enable our customers to make informed product choices from the various product ranges we supply.
My goal is to support customers in a manner that they can spend less time looking for the products that they need, while still making informed decisions.
What most do you like about your role?
Everyday there's something new to learn and new enthusiastic people to meet. Many of my customers are passionate about their work, whether they're working on a new discovery or delivering results on time, and what it could mean for society.
Being apart of the community and supporting our clients is invigorating.
What most surprised you about Interpath?
The enthusiasm that all the team members have for their clients. It doesn't matter if they've just started or have been with the company for decades.
As a company, we truly are not just a distributor of product. We strive to understand our customer’s needs and find them the perfect solutions for their circumstances.
It goes beyond a simple purchasing decision for a consumable product.
What are some of the challenges that you've noticed in the market?
Funding has been a major challenge in the marketplace and the rapidly changing face of science in Australia. Emerging technologies and the expanding medical device development has presented the scientific community with many different challenges, including validations, standardization and compliance.
I also saw some emerging challenges in private public partnerships and private biotechnology investment, however it seems that they've begun slowly resolving with transparent communication and supportive teams.
Digitalization and machine learning also remains both a key trend and challenge in the industry. While it does assist in solving some of the market challenges, it's also contributed to the development of new ones such as the increased requirement for barcoded consumables.
While adopting new technologies can be disruptive to the daily routines that have been traditionally performed, it can also aid in efficiency.
What do you expect the new big industry trends to be?
In the healthcare industry, Genomic Medicine and Patient Centric Care are likely to be the big industry trends. Local advancements in RNA and Nano technologies are supporting this trend. A variety of supportive digitalization programmes to reduce human error and manage large datasets have emerged as well.
In the scientific community, Green Technologies, Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have been trending. This year, I’ve noticed the expansion of nano and 3D applications in products entering the market.
It's also been interesting to make note of the new international standards for manufacturers of consumables, especially in the automation market which can assist in giving customers more choice.
Fundamentals of reproducibility, consistency and traceability build strong clean datasets to enable the machine learning algorithms in AI. The quality of the materials, reagents and labware lean into this.
As the digital technology evolves, it becomes easier to pinpoint specific data points in large datasets more rapidly and with less error. Having the ability to adopt this at the level of consumables whether it be plates, tubes or vials, is a game changer in the velocity at which these can be identified.
The desire for ergonomic and sustainable solutions continues with collaborative groups such as My Green Lab, enabling customers to identify where they can improve and how certified products meet specific goals in these areas.
It’s exciting that Interpath can support customers in these areas, including supply of ACT certified product.
What’s the biggest challenge facing customers?
There’s less time for customers to spend performing science and providing results. Ensuring every unique sample is not wasted.
Is there a message you’d like to share with your customers?
During my career, I’ve had the privilege to work and support many people in a variety of ways in the scientific and healthcare profession. I like to help problem solve and provide solutions, as well as connect people to products that can make a meaningful difference in their daily work so they can focus on what they do best.I’ve joined the Interpath team because of the quality and range of products that we can offer our customers, and the ability to give customer’s a choice when there are changes in the requirements of the market.