美高梅官网

A聽new聽gift聽to 美高梅官网 Health聽from a private foundation聽will help expand the capacity and speed of testing for COVID-19聽across聽the region's academic聽healthcare system.听

Through the 美高梅官网 Foundation,聽the anonymous donor聽has聽funded the purchase聽of two pieces聽of聽equipment for the 美高梅官网 Health Precision Medicine Laboratory,聽 which聽can be put to immediate use in accelerating聽in-house聽testing for聽the novel coronavirus responsible for the聽global聽pandemic.听聽

Two machines聽and their associated peripherals at a value of $170,000, as well a quantity of test kits for an additional $30,000, have been purchased and are聽en聽route to arrive at 美高梅官网 Medical Center within the next two weeks.听

鈥淲e are incredibly grateful for the generosity and timing of this donation. These donors鈥攁s well as many others who have stepped up to show their support across the community in recent weeks鈥攁re helping us to collectively work through this public health event as a region,鈥� said 美高梅官网 Health President and CEO Richard P. Lofgren, MD. 鈥淲e are working to grow our capacity to test for COVID-19 within our laboratories, and as testing supplies and capacity increase, we intend to be able to provide access to testing to our larger community.鈥澛犅�

Dani Zander, MD,聽chief of pathology and laboratory medicine for 美高梅官网 Health and聽MacKenzie聽Chair and Professor of Pathology at the 美高梅官网 College of Medicine, says the gift allowed for the purchase of the聽GenMark聽ePlex(R) and the聽KingFisher(TM)聽extraction instruments聽and associated test kits聽for the 美高梅官网 Health Lab, which recently began testing for COVID-19.听The聽ePlex聽is made by GenMark Diagnostics, Inc., Carlsbad, California, while the聽KingFisher聽is made by聽ThermoFisher聽Scientific Inc., Waltham, Massachusetts.

鈥淲ith the purchase and arrival of these machines, paired with the recent capabilities of our in-house instruments, we should be able to more than quadruple the number of COVID-19 tests that we can process in one day,鈥� said Dr. Zander, noting that the typical turnaround time for a test result is one to three days.听聽

聽鈥淎lso, with the GenMark, we will have the ability to run a rapid test for COVID-19, that will take about 90 minutes for a positive or negative result. This helps doctors promptly make informed聽decisions about care for those patients who are already hospitalized or planning to have procedures done and helps conserve personal protective equipment by allowing us to use these resources when people truly need it.鈥�

Aside from testing for COVID-19, this equipment can be used for other testing purposes in the future, such as聽performing cancer genotyping that is important for determining cancer treatment.

"We聽truly聽appreciate聽the聽continued聽wonderful聽support聽from our community,鈥� said Andrew Filak Jr., MD, senior聽vice聽president for聽health聽affairs and Christian R. Holmes Professor and Dean of the College of Medicine.听鈥淭hese technologies will help to improve care,聽protect both patients and the medical staff聽through聽expanded聽and speedier聽testing, and聽be valuable tools for聽our faculty and clinicians.鈥�

The testing will be conducted at the 美高梅官网 Health Precision Medicine Laboratory located at the 美高梅官网聽Medical Center.听聽