Answers from the Lab

01:16 What are you thinking when you look to the future for laboratory testing for COVID-19?  03:05 What are your thoughts on that? What would be some ways that we could predict who would be at risk for severe disease and really might go downhill quickly?  04:47 So should we be testing for T-cells? Are there any T-cell marker tests in the future?  05:41 Can you tell us a little bit about that from...

Timestamps: Speaker 1: (00:39) So let's start by talking about the new neutralizing antibody test. Can you tell us a little bit about this test and how it came about?  Speaker 1: (04:55)  So we are screening all of the employees throughout the Mayo Clinic enterprise. Can you tell us about this and the scope and the purpose behind this program?  Speaker 1: (07:26)  So a lot of things to consider, I...

Full Show Notes (Timestamps) Speaker 1: (00:56)  So there continues to be a lot of interest in antibody testing for COVID-19. Can you refresh our memories on what antibody testing is?  Speaker 1: (02:12)  Now that we are actually six months into this outbreak, what is our understanding about using serologic testing? Will it be the magic bullet that will allow us to go back to work? Speaker 1: (05:...

Full Show Notes (Timestamps) Speaker 1: (00:50)  So this is now our six months in a world with COVID-19, which is just amazing. What is new in terms of testing at Mayo Clinic Laboratories for COVID-19?  Speaker 1: (02:23)  It has the potential to really help a lot of patients, if you can show that giving convalescent plasma is going to be helpful to our patients struggling with COVID-19.  Speaker...

01:23  How do you envision that we could use these two types of tests to help restart our economy?  07:04 When you test one day, what does that mean? 08:59 What can the laboratory do to help guide how our tests are used for clinical decision making public policy and even help guide how future tests are created so that they can best serve our patients?  Resources: https://news.mayocliniclabs.com/co...

00:53  So you were the division chair of clinical microbiology at the time that the COVID-19 pandemic began. How did COVID-19 affect you in that?  05:49  So how did COVID-19 impact this society that we call ASM? 10:32  Our department chair, Dr. Bill Morice, asked you to lead a COVID-19 biospecimens group for Mayo Clinic. What does this group do? 

01:46  So Dr. Morice, how have you seen the laboratory response evolve along with the pandemic?  04:01  Do you feel that Mayo Clinic is in a unique position to contribute to testing and the dialogue around testing given that we have our local practice as well as our international reference laboratory practice? 

Dr. Pritt: (02:13)  Could you tell us a little bit more about your podcast and what people can expect when they tune in? Dr. Kreuter: (06:02)  What can listeners to Answers from the Lab podcast expect to hear in the coming weeks and months?  Dr. Pritt: (07:24)  Since you've been doing this for a while, do you have any lessons that you'd like to share from your podcasting experience? Resources: Lab...

(00:49)  Things continue to move really quickly on the COVID-19 testing front, and now the big news is really the government is transitioning to push testing coordination out to the states. We'd love to get your input on this and what advantages you see to this approach. (03:36)  Let's talk about some of those concerns you may have about this approach.  (07:39)  Seems like we're optimistic that th...

Timestamps Speaker 1: (01:17)  Can you tell us why that decision was made and how you went about bringing up this new test?  Speaker 1: (04:27)  We went with our laboratory developed test, which was essential to get us up and running, but had a limited throughput. Then you've basically tripled our capacity by adding these additional platforms and tests. Speaker 1: (05:27)  Now I also know when you...

(01:19)  I think really of interest is this new partnership with Minnesota and state leadership to provide COVID-19 testing for all Minnesotans as needed. One of the first partnerships in nation of this sort. Could you just touch on that and tell us where are we right now in making this happen? Resources: https://news.mayocliniclabs.com/covid19/

(00:50)  Can you explain for our listeners what a drive up phlebotomy site is and how this process works for patients and staff?  (02:46)  Can you tell our listeners what the drivers were for having this nontraditional suboptimal system?  (03:47)  So what were some of the challenges you faced when setting this service up and how were you able to overcome them?  (04:47)  So how is it going so far t...

(00:57)  Can you tell us more about this partnership and how it evolved?  (05:10)  So can you tell us a little bit about what are those goals? What are the desired outcomes from this new partnership?  (06:22)  What is Mayo clinic doing and Mayo clinic laboratories in ramping up to be able to provide this. Resources: https://news.mayocliniclabs.com/covid19/

(00:47)  So there are a lot of tests on the market now for detecting COVID-19 can you tell us what the main categories of these tests are?  (01:30)  Let's delve into those a little bit more. Let's start with the molecular test. Can you explain to our audience how that works?  (03:32)  Because there's so many different types of PCR tests out there right now, can you tell us a little bit about the d...

 (01:24)  When did you first realize that the virus was likely to be a problem in the United States? And how did you respond at that time?     (03:44)  How did you progress then when you realized that we did need to step up our efforts and start putting a team together? What were your plans for that and who did you pick to represent the individuals for that team?     (05:47)  So how did your effor...

A discussion with Dr. Elli Theel, the Laboratory Director of the Infectious Diseases Serology Laboratory at Mayo Clinic, who led the efforts to evaluate and implement the antibody test for COVID-19. Topics covered include an overview of antibody testing, why Mayo is testing for IgG only, ordering scenarios, sensitivity and specificity of the Mayo test, a comparison with other serology test offerin...

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