How biotechs are racing to develop COVID-19 tests – Part 1 of 3
The novel SARS-CoV-2 virus and the disease it causes (COVID-19) are sweeping the world. The US’s ability to rapidly and accurately test patients, not to mention their health care providers, is critical to containing the virus. That said, it has proved to be one of the biggest challenges for our country in recent weeks.
This article is the first in a three-part series covering the response of biotech companies to the COVID-19 crisis. The second article in this series is: How biotechs are racing to develop COVID-19 treatments.
What You Need to Know About Lab Billing Software Integrations
When it comes to managing a clinical laboratory service, getting procedures done on time and accurately is only part of the total equation. After health records have been acquired, tests have been run, and results compiled, someone has to pay for the work performed. In the modern health care landscape, executing billing practices correctly might be more time-consuming and labor-intensive than any other part of the job. But when laboratories can easily interface with their billing systems directly from their laboratory information management system, it’s possible to gain greater efficiency and incredible cost savings.
Laboratory Informatics Weekly Update – Volume 18, Issue 15
April 14, 2020 Laboratory Informatics Weekly Update Volume 18, Issue 15 In This Issue Featured Content 04/14/2020 - How biotechs are racing to develop COVID-19 treatments - Part 2 of 3The novel coronavirus has had sweeping effects on the world at large since its emergence last winter, and it will no doubt continue to affect and change the world we live in. As we do our part to shelter-in-place and practice social distancing, there are leagues of scientists and researchers working around the clock on therapeutics to treat patients infected with SARS-CoV 2. This article is the second in…Wrangling environmental exposure data: Guidance for getting the best information from your laboratory measurements
In this 2019 paper published in Environmental Health, Udesky et al. share their organization's guidance towards addressing quality in environmental exposure testing and data. In particular, the authors note the importance of reporting quality control data along with chemical measurements in published research, stating that its lacking leaves "readers uncertain about the level of confidence in the reported data." Their objective was to provide full guidance on the implementation, interpretation, and reporting of QC data. After explaining their approach to study design, study implementation, and data interpretation, the authors conclude that their guidance, visualizations, and supplementary content provide "a useful set of tools for getting the best information from valuable environmental exposure datasets, and enabling valid comparison and synthesis of exposure data across studies."
Thermo Fisher Scientific Launches New AcroMetrix Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) RNA Control (RUO)
hermo Fisher Scientific announces the availability of the Thermo Scientific AcroMetrix Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) RNA Control, its latest quality control product to monitor and validate COVID-19 molecular diagnostic tests.
Wiley Acquires Bio-Rad’s Informatics Spectroscopy Software and Spectral Databases
John Wiley and Sons Inc. today announced the acquisition of Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc.’s Informatics products including the company’s spectroscopy software and spectral databases.EccoVia Solutions COVID-19 Screening Tool
EccoVia Solutions, a leading provider of health and human services cloud-based solutions, announces today that they have successfully completed the implementation of a COVID-19 screening tool in the company’s signature software platform, ClientTrack©.Innovative Cloud-based Tech to Rapidly Increase COVID-19 Testing Capacity Across The US
OnGen, an advanced laboratory information management system (LIMS) is helping laboratories to increase their testing capacity and provide testing results at an unprecedented rate during the COVID-19 outbreak.National Institutes of Health (NIH) Research Updates
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is our nation’s medical research agency and strives to make scientific discoveries that improve health and save lives. Founded in 1870, the NIH conducts its own scientific research through its Intramural Research Program (IRP), which supports approximately 1,200 principal investigators and more than 4,000 postdoctoral fellows conducting basic, translational and clinical research. In this blog, we will highlight recent ground-breaking NIH research.
Importance of Method Validation to Public Health
You can’t escape the knowledge that the world is currently in the midst of a global pandemic of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel SARS-CoV-2 strain of coronavirus. Tracking and slowing the spread of disease have been on everyone’s mind for much of the year. We know that this will be difficult to do without rapid and accurate testing, which has been in short supply in the United States. The U.S. must produce or acquire accurate tests, quickly and in high volumes, which is why many are pushing to loosen regulations to get more tests into the hands of health care professionals. The laboratory informatics experts at CSols have a unique insight into laboratory testing and data analysis, and we have been discussing—remotely, of course—how our experience with successful LIMS implementations can help experts predict and prevent future pandemics.
Laboratory Informatics Weekly Update – Volume 18, Issue 14
April 7, 2020 Laboratory Informatics Weekly Update Volume 18, Issue 14 In This Issue Featured Content 04/07/2020 - Thermo Fisher Scientific Launches New AcroMetrix Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) RNA Control (RUO)hermo Fisher Scientific announces the availability of the Thermo Scientific AcroMetrix Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) RNA Control, its latest quality control product to monitor and validate COVID-19 molecular diagnostic tests. 04/07/2020 - National Institutes of Health (NIH) Research UpdatesThe National Institutes of Health (NIH) is our nation’s medical research agency and strives to make scientific discoveries that improve health and save lives. Founded in 1870, the NIH conducts its own scientific…2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19): Paving the road for rapid detection and point-of-care diagnostics
In this March 2020 journal article published in the journal Micromachines, Nguyen, Bang, and Wolff give their professional take on point-of-care diagnostics for combating the COVID-19 epidemic. In particular, the authors discuss the loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) nucleic acid amplification technique and its potential to make COVID-19 testing faster, more portable, more flexible, more stable, and more sensitive. After discussing the then-recent events (information is changing rapidly), the authors compare real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) with LAMP methods and discuss other important factors affecting society because of the pandemic.
COVID-19 Testing for the Physician Office Laboratory (POL)
Like it or not, physician or not, the current pandemic is already affecting you in some ways or others. And those physicians on the front line seeing patients cannot avoid being involved. If you have testing equipment of your own, at least you may be able to recoup some of the costs of seeing potential COVID-19 patients, handling specimens and meeting reporting requirements.
