Irvine’s AccuPath, City of Hope Team Up

There’s a medical group looking for research dollars; there’s a small start-up company that wants credibility.

Put the two together, and you might get the venture started this year between the City of Hope Medical Group and Irvine’s AccuPath that does lab work on biopsied specimens for hospitals and pathologists.

The medical group has agreed to provide pathologists practicing at City of Hope National Medical Center, the nationally known cancer center in Duarte, as supervisors and consultants to AccuPath’s lab.

Dr. Lawrence Weiss, the medical center’s acting chairman of pathology, will serve as AccuPath’s chief medical director, and Dr. Karen Chang, the center’s director of immunohistochemistry, becomes AccuPath’s associate medical director. The medical group also will provide a pathologist for the company’s Irvine operation to examine slides and oversee other scientific work.

Michael Danzi, AccuPath’s president and chief executive, said its affiliation with City of Hope’s cancer experts gives the company “a relationship with the highest-quality people out there,” a strategy he hopes will attract business from pathologists and hospitals aware of the cancer center’s reputation.

In exchange, AccuPath will make payments to the medical group to fund cancer research. Chang figures the arrangement with AccuPath will yield research support that’s more predictable than grants from competitive government programs.

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Barbara Marsh covers health care for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-7762 and at barbara.marsh@latimes.com