A How-to Guide to Building a Robust SARS-CoV-2 Testing Program at a University-Based Health System

Abstract

When South Florida became a hot spot for COVID-19 disease in March 2020, we faced an urgent need to develop test capability to detect SARS-CoV-2 infection. We assembled a transdisciplinary team of knowledgeable and dedicated physicians, scientists, technologists, and administrators who rapidly built a multiplatform, polymerase chain reaction- and serology-based detection program, established drive-through facilities, and drafted and implemented guidelines that enabled efficient testing of our patients and employees. This process was extremely complex, due to the limited availability of needed reagents, but outreach to our research scientists and multiple diagnostic laboratory companies, and government officials enabled us to implement both Food and Drug Administration authorized and laboratory-developed testing–based testing protocols. We analyzed our workforce needs and created teams of appropriately skilled and certified workers to safely process patient samples and conduct SARS-CoV-2 testing and contact tracing. We initiated smart test ordering, interfaced all testing platforms with our electronic medical record, and went from zero testing capacity to testing hundreds of health care workers and patients daily, within 3 weeks. We believe our experience can inform the efforts of others when faced with a crisis situation.

Communication during a global pandemic: The utility of a professional society listserv and journal

“…Ten of these involved authors who had contributed to the APC COVID-19 listserv dialogs. 1 , 2 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 …”

“…The SARS-coronavirus −2 (SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19) global pandemic has presented heretofore unimaginable challenges to the field of medicine overall but particularly to the discipline of pathology, which has been thrust onto the front line for development, performance, and reporting of diagnostic and surveillance testing while maintaining support services for nonpandemic patients. 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 …”

COVID-19 Pandemic Spurs Evolution of an Academic Pathology Department and Laboratory

“…We also ramped up COVID molecular testing using multiple platforms, a strategy employed by other institutions. 12 - 15 Beyond these effects, COVID-19 rapidly accelerated the structural and operational transformation of our pathology department and clinical lab all while our medical school and health system have continued to integrate, with changing ownership, organization, and funds flow.…”

CONCORD: Enhancing COVID-19 Research with Weak-Supervision based Numerical Claim Extraction

“…Claim: We are the only University-based health system in the region, with 3 inpatient facilities and 7 satellite locations. [39] We identified such patterns after reading several research articles from D1 (CORD-19 Dataset). Subsequently, these grammar-based heuristic rules have been used in designing the labelling functions used in the weak-supervision model.…”