Former surgeon general joins local diagnostic technology company as advisor

SARASOTA — After serving a stint as the 20th surgeon general of the United States, Dr. Jerome Adams is joining Lumos Diagnostic as a strategic health care advisor. 

Lumos, a rapid point-of-care (POC) diagnostic technologies company founded in Lakewood Ranch, also appointed Adams to the company’s medical advisory board, according to a statement. As the strategic health care advisor, Adams will provide guidance on effectively deploying POC diagnostic technologies with the first task being the launch of FebriDx, a novel fingerstick blood test that can differentiate if a person has a bacterial or viral infection. 

“The pressing health challenges of the last 18 months have highlighted the importance of diagnostic testing as one of the key tools to fight both the current pandemic as well as the looming pandemic of antimicrobial resistance,” says Adams in the press release. “We need to get ahead of these problems with a truly accessible outpatient solution.”

“Lumos has found a match in our passion for public health in Dr. Adams,” adds Dr. Rob Sambursky, Lumos president and CEO, in the release. “Together, we intend to make a meaningful impact for millions of patients each year by improving global access to innovative, cost-effective rapid diagnostic test solutions.”

While Adams was surgeon general between 2017 and 2021, he served on the frontlines of the U.S. response to COVID-19. He also worked to combat the opioid epidemic, rising rates of chronic disease, the impacts of rising suicide rates, promoted maternal health and helped businesses promote community health and equitable access to health care resources, the release states, He currently is an assistant professor of clinical anesthesia at Indiana University and practices as a staff anesthesiologist at Eskenazi Health.

Lumos Diagnostics, a Carlsbad, California-based company, merged with Lakewood Ranch-based RPS Diagnostics in 2019. Following the merger, the company received a $15 million investment from Planet Innovation, an Australia-based health tech innovation and commercialization company. Lumos is a subsidiary of Planet Innovation. The investment was given to support the international commercial expansion of the FebriDX test.