COVID-19 Testing Solutions Webinars

Testing for COVID-19 remains a cornerstone in dealing with the global pandemic that has continued to spread across the globe. In the first session, ARUP Laboratories will share their laboratory’s experience on the clinical performance of the TaqPath™ COVID-19 as compared to two other RT-PCR based tests for detection of SARS-CoV-2. During their talk they will present performance data with regards to the “two of three” infected patient gold standard. In the second session Thermo Fisher Scientific will provide a deep dive into their road map to serve the growing testing demands of the medical community.

As the world continues to contend with the pandemic, Thermo Fisher Scientific continues to arm laboratories with the widest, most innovative selection of COVID-19 testing solutions that meet the needs of the communities in which they operate. From the initial launch in January to Emergency Use Authorization and global approvals, in March, to subsequent developments to enable more laboratories to do more testing, our kit has become a central component of many COVID-19 protocols around the world. In this workshop, some of those laboratories will share clinical data and discuss how our solutions are helping in the fight against SARS-CoV-2.performance of the TaqPath™ COVID-19 as compared to two other RT-PCR based tests for detection of SARS-CoV-2. During their talk they will present performance data with regards to the “two of three” infected patient gold standard. In the second session Thermo Fisher Scientific will provide a deep dive into their road map to serve the growing testing demands of the medical community.

The worldwide spread of COVID-19 has stressed clinical laboratories in numerous dimensions including supply chain management, preanalytical throughput, analytical throughput, and extreme variances in testing demand. Innovative tests, such as the TaqPath COVID-19 Combo Kit, build on the strong technical foundation and substantial manufacturing capacity of Thermo Fisher Scientific while also leveraging the workforce of molecular biologists trained and experienced in real-time PCR techniques in order to address an unprecedented scale-up in test capacity required. Whether in a start-up laboratory or a well-established laboratory, successful ongoing testing with the TaqPath COVID-19 Combo Kit that is responsive to the needs of patients and physicians requires acute attention to detail in traditional areas of laboratory operations including quality control, workflow, labor allocation, standardized processes, and technician training, but the open format of the assay and associated analyses add additional challenges. This presentation will illustrate how the TaqPath COVID-19 Combo Kit is operationalized at a large regional reference laboratory with particular emphasis on the challenges unique to the assay.

In late 2019, researchers identified the SARS-CoV-2 pathogen as the virus responsible for COVID-19. The virus spread rapidly throughout the world and was declared a global health concern by the World Health Organization. At the end of January 2020, Thermo Fisher Scientific launched a SARS-CoV-2 pathogen detection assay, which was quickly developed into a multiplex kit containing highly specific assays and controls targeting three different regions of the SARS-CoV-2 genome. The kit was approved for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) by the United States Food and Drug Administration in March, and has since been used as a central component of other EUA approved protocols.

With the on-going COVID-19 crisis, we now know that testing volumes must increase in order to help restore our communities back to some degree of normality. But questions remain: How can labs scale while minimizing costs? How can they be assured of uninterrupted supply of tests and reagents? In this webinar, we introduce the upcoming Thermo Fisher Scientific Amplitude Solution—a highly-automated molecular diagnostic testing system that can analyze over 6,000 specimens in a single day with the reliability and confidence of assured assay and reagent supply, along with 24/7 world class service and support.