Speakers
Rick Bright, PhD
Senior Advisor to the NIH Director
Rachael Fleurence, PhD
Special Assistant to the NIH Director for COVID-19 Diagnostics
Topic
Accelerating the Nation’s COVID-19 Testing Capacity: An Update from the NIH’s RADx Program
Keywords
National Institutes of Health; COVID-19; Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx); COVID-19 testing protocols; Innovative technologies; Coronavirus testing
Key Points
- The NIH launched the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) initiative to speed innovation in the development, commercialization, and implementation of technologies for COVID-19 testing.
- RADx is creating programs to rapidly scale-up testing across the country and enhance access to those most in need. Newer technologies offer user-friendly designs with lower cost and increased accessibility at home and at the point of care.
- Deploying the right tests at the right time to the right people will be critical to managing the pandemic until a vaccine is available and beyond. Testing will still be necessary after the vaccine becomes available.
Discussion Themes
The supply chain continues to be a challenge in COVID-19 testing procedures, for example the availability of plastic tips and swabs. However, barriers are driving innovations such as saliva technologies and extraction-less approaches.
Are there efforts underway to link testing data from disparate sources such as EHR clinical data, administrative claims data, antibody testing, symptom trackers/COVID-19 registries?
A new goal will be implementing the real-time matching of COVID-19 hot spots with available testing.
Read more about the NIH’s RADx program and in a special report in New England Journal of Medicine.
Tags
#pctGR, @Collaboratory1