Roche Diagnostics launches new customer training center in Pleasanton, California

Roche Diagnostics announced today the opening of a new west-coast customer training center in Pleasanton, California, as part of an initiative to make state-of-the-art training on diagnostic equipment more accessible to hospitals and independent laboratories on the west and east coasts. Roche has an existing training center at its headquarters in Indianapolis and is planning to open an additional facility in New Jersey in 2010.

The expansion of training centers beyond Indianapolis is intended to support Roche's goal of offering customers best-in-class service, according to Michael Tillmann, president and CEO of Roche Diagnostics North America. "Hands-on training with our products can enhance the learning experience for our customers and help them translate that knowledge into greater efficiencies and better outcomes in their own labs," he said. "Adding advanced training facilities on the west and east coasts will make it much easier for customers to access the training and accommodate the travel into their schedules."

The new Pleasanton training center, which includes three classrooms and a working laboratory, occupies approximately 5,000 square feet at an existing facility owned by Roche Molecular Systems, a division of Roche Diagnostics. The center will house the latest Roche instrumentation used for molecular diagnostics and clinical chemistry/immunochemistry testing, and will be managed by Roche's Indianapolis-based training team, which coordinates training for all U.S. customers.

"Having these new facilities will not only make it easier to provide our existing customers with training, it will also enable more potential customers to see our diagnostics solutions in operation," said Marco Casarin, Senior Vice President, Roche Services North America. "We also intend to use the centers to facilitate user group meetings, where customers can share best practices and see the potential for what they could achieve with their labs."