Premier Medical Laboratory Services increases critical access to COVID-19 diagnostics with new saliva-based assay
Premier Medical Laboratory Services is now offering saliva testing for COVID-19. (Credit: Pixabay/Ewa Urban.)
Premier Medical Laboratory Services (PMLS) is now offering saliva based COVID-19 diagnostic testing. An industry leading commercial diagnostic laboratory, PMLS is now able to provide diagnostic results based on samples from various specimen types including: saliva, nasopharyngeal swabs, nares swabs, sputum, nasal aspirate, and more. Results for the test are provided in under 48 hours of the laboratory’s receipt of the sample and individuals can easily check the status of their results by visiting PMLS’ patient portal on their website.
By using saliva as a sample type, PMLS is making sample collection easier for both the healthcare professional and the patient. While the nasopharyngeal (NP) swab remains as an important means of sample collection for COVID-19 PCR assays, many patients have complained of its discomfort due to the swab being inserted deeply into the nasal cavity, which is the proper means of sample collection via NP swab. Alternatively, the saliva-based COVID-19 test allows for a non-invasive method of sample collection for COVID-19.
PMLS’ ability to perform their polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay on saliva specimens furthers their mission in providing solutions to the critical supply chain shortage for COVID-19 tests that the US continues to face. Saliva testing uses different components for the collection devices which eases the current burden on the supply chain while increasing testing availability.
According to a Nature Research Journal article, epidemiologists say mass testing for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, requires millions of tests per country per week. The article went on to say that testing providers have been reporting a severe shortage of test kits and required materials from nose swabs to chemical reagents because of supply-chain problems.
“Our laboratory is at the forefront of the latest scientific and technological advancements in COVID-19 testing,” said Kevin Murdock, Founder of Premier Medical Laboratory Services. “We are continuing to innovatively provide solutions to current demands with the goal of significantly contributing in our nation’s fight against the virus.”
At PMLS’s 40,000 sqft COLA and CLIA regulated laboratory, headquartered in Greenville, SC, they have also have available an IgG/IgM ELISA for COVID-19 antibody testing . The lab has reached a high volume testing capacity of 50,000 COVID-19 tests per day with the help of added staff, equipment, and their laboratory information management system (LIMS), OnGen.
Source: Company Press Release