IUP partners with Indiana hospital to provide same-day testing for covid-19

Indiana University of Pennsylvania is joining Indiana Regional Medical Center to bring same-day testing for covid-19 to the rural hospital.

University officials said Dr. Narayanaswamy Bharathan, chairman of the biology department at IUP, will be working at the hospital to conduct covid-19 tests. Using equipment from his IUP laboratory, Bharathan will be able to provide same-day results.

Across the U.S., widespread testing is viewed as a major step toward determining the prevalence of the virus and when it will be safe to begin reopening businesses.

Stephen A. Wolfe, president and CEO of the Indiana hospital, said same-day testing should help ease concerns among the families of patients who have been hospitalized with suspected cases of covid-19.

To date, the hospital has struggled with the same shortage of testing kits health care centers across the nation faced. Being able to process tests in-house means doctors won’t have to wait days to learn whether patients begin treated for suspected covid-19 are suffering from the highly infectious respiratory virus.

“Right now we have patients lying in isolation four, five, six or seven days just waiting for a covid test result. When they are in isolation we burn through a lot of personal protective equipment. This same-day, four-hour turnaround is a game changer. Being able to get negative (patients) out of isolation is critical,” he said.

The hospital had to obtain waivers and emergency clearances from the FDA and the CDC certifying the arrangement met national standards.

Dr. Amesh Adalja, a Pittsburgh-based infectious disease and critical care physician, said when the coronavirus began to spread across the nation, hospitals were coming up with their own lab tests for the infection. But more recently, medical equipment manufacturers have made testing equipment available to hospitals for purchase.

“This sounds to be an economic decision to use a lab test they’ve developed in-house, leveraging the university rather than buying the equipment. But there definitely is a need to do these tests and get a quick turnaround,” Adalja said.

Bharathan said he will be conducting real-time tests that can return results on a single DNA sample in as little as 45 minutes. He said he anticipates running 75-90 samples through the system at a time, a process that increases the turnaround time to 3-4 hours.

During a nine-hour day, if need be, Bharathan estimated that he can process 200 tests.

The partnership between the university and the hospital entailed moving equipment from Bharathan’s lab at IUP to the hospital, where it was installed in a level three bio-safety facility. The scientist began conducting trial runs there last week and expects to begin testing in earnest April 20.

Wolfe said testing will be limited to suspected cases at the hospital. “This is not consumer testing,” he stressed.

“One thing this crisis has shown us is that we have incredible resources right here at home,” Wolfe said. “The ability to work with IUP to combine our amazing people has never been more evident. Bringing testing in-house will be a game-changer for people we serve.”

“We all understand that during this current crisis, testing is key,” Bharathan said. “The more individuals we test, the greater the observations and conclusions we can make about how they were exposed.”

IUP President Michael Driscoll said the university is proud that Bharathan stepped forward to partner with the local hospital.

“This is an excellent opportunity for collaboration on a project that has the potential to literally save lives, now and in the future,” Driscoll said.