Testing the Limits: Dr. Torri Gambacorta, owner of Any Lab Test Now, makes a difference in the health of the community.

By Ashley Daniels

Since moving to Myrtle Beach from North Carolina in 2011, the heart of Dr. Torri Gambacorta’s world has been to make a difference in the community and to fill the gaping holes in that heart that providers in the medical field and their patients were missing.

That mission first began with opening Myrtle Beach Spine Center in Carolina Forest with her husband, a practice that is still thriving and that she is still active in. But Gambacorta’s main calling – and the medical practice she runs today – came to her during the pandemic.

“That’s when we saw a big need for the availability of lab testing,” she says. “When everything shut down, it was very hard for people to get the lab work that they needed to get into physician’s offices. And then, when everything opened back up, with all the influx of new residents in Horry County, there was definitely a backlog.

“There was an experience when my son was very sick and we needed to get some lab testing for him, and they were backed up for weeks just trying to figure out what was going on with him to get him into a physician’s office,” Gambacorta continues. “At that point, I wondered, ‘How do we solve this problem? What can we do?’ And that’s where I started this journey.”

Her journey starting point: Any Lab Test Now in Myrtle Beach, one of more than 220 testing centers nationwide that are each individually and locally owned. The concept is unique in that it is based on direct-to-consumer lab testing without the need for a physician referral; Any Lab Test Now can skip that step and provide the order directly to the customer.

The lab test menu is diverse, with more than 8,000 options, from general wellness blood testing, like an annual exam, to hormones, paternity testing, allergy, DNA, drug screens, vitamin injections, STD, drugs and alcohol, and so much more.

“One of the things that I kept hearing from our patients was that they were interested in seeing what their hormones were doing or they were trying to get healthy and wanted to see what their nutrition levels are or what vitamin supplementation they should do,” says Dr. Gambacorta. “I’m data-driven, and I do not feel that data is ever a bad thing for a person to have, so if they want to know what’s going on in their body, they should not have gatekeepers. They should not be told by a doctor that they don’t feel like ordering that for you, or that you don’t really need it. Especially, being a 45-year-old woman, hormones are very important to me!”

The online process before you visit Any Lab Test Now is simple: choose a location, explore testing options, select a specific test, and schedule an appointment. Gambacorta says they do accept walk-ins but encourage appointments for increased patient privacy – especially when it comes to more sensitive tests, such as paternity tests.

“With paternity testing, we offer several different types, such as legal, which does the chain of custody and is admissible in a court of law, and non-legal, which is called informational only after the baby is born or during pregnancy,” she says. “Technology has advanced so much and the accessibility is exciting from even 10 years ago.”

Gambacorta, who earned her Doctor of Chiropractic from Logan University in St. Louis, Missouri, and a fellowship in pediatrics care from the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association in Chicago, says she then turns the lab test results, or data, over directly to the patient and provides them with the necessary resources. She can also send the results directly to their physician.

“With the direct-to-consumer access lab testing, we enable our patients to be able to take their lab work to their physician on their first appointment, rather than having multiple appointments accomplish the same result,” she says. “We don’t file insurance, so we can keep our rates extremely low. In fact, most of our rates are cheaper than most patients’ copays and deductibles. And the exciting part about it is if for some reason, we can’t help you or we don’t have a test available, we can investigate it and try to be able to make that available for you. Our mission is that we work for our patients, and we work for our clients. So, the sky’s the limit!”

For more information on Any Lab Test Now or to schedule an appointment, visit Anylabtestnow.com/myrtle-beach-29588.