![]() Researchers designed a new method of testing. The clinic said it found partners at the University of Washington, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the laboratory Quest Diagnostics. The Everett Clinic's parent company, UnitedHealth Group, signed off on the experiment. "If we could do that, we could save a lot of PPE," he said. The question Tu wanted to answer: Could a COVID-19 test be simple, safe, and painless enough that patients could swab themselves? By the next morning, he said, the plan was in motion. ![]() That night, the doctor said, he wrote a proposal for an experiment exploring a simpler way to test for COVID-19. ![]() Tu said, after a meeting on the clinic’s dwindling supply of protective gear, he went home and thought: "The only way we can change this is change the way we test people for COVID." But working in the Everett area, where the country's first novel coronavirus case was diagnosed, he and his colleagues were on the front lines of a new outbreak, trying to detect the virus in their patients. Yuan-Po Tu, who works at the Everett Clinic, a group of 30 medical offices in Snohomish and King counties. "It became very apparent that we did not have enough PPE for the long run," said Dr. It often induces sneezing and coughing, putting health care workers at risk of infection and making them use up valuable protective gear.Įarly on in the outbreak, staff at a local medical clinic realized this method was burning through their supply of personal protective equipment, or PPE. This process, called a nasopharyngeal swab, isn't just uncomfortable for the patient. Most people tested for COVID-19 have had to endure an extra-long swab inserted into a nostril and snaked through the nasal cavity until it touches the back of the throat.
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