Healthcare providers and employers, you can now get your patients and employees tested for COVID-19 through LifeBrite Laboratories. After carefully evaluating the accuracy of several testing protocols, we’ve chosen the real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test.
This well-established technique is the CDC’s gold standard for RNA viruses, such as influenza and coronaviruses. The COVID-19 RT-PCR test also received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the FDA.
“We want to do our part to support you,” says LifeBrite Labs CEO Christian Fletcher, “as you care for your patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Our lab technicians have extensive prior expertise in respiratory pathogens through the LifeBrite Respiratory Pathogen Profile (RPP), which you may have already used to test your patients for respiratory viruses and respiratory bacteria including adenoviruses, coronaviruses, rhinoviruses, influenza, and bacterial pneumonia.
We also have deep expertise in RT-PCR tests through LifeBrite Pharmacogenomics (PGX) testing, which assesses how your patients’ genotypes will influence their response to various medications, including those that treat cancers, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, pain, and other conditions.
In short, detecting a respiratory pathogen using an RT-PCR test is familiar territory for us. We can get you accurate results usually within 24-48 hours. While we are aware that there are faster methods on the market, such as the rapid antigen tests, molecular tests such as RT-PCR are generally much more accurate and provide a higher level of certainty.
Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, Steven Woloshin, M.D., Neeraj Patel, B.A., and Aaron S. Kesselheim, M.D., J.D., M.P.H. say, “A big concern has been test availability, but test accuracy may prove a larger long-term problem.”
According to the FDA, with antigen tests, “Positive results are usually highly accurate but negative results may need to be confirmed with a molecular test.” However, a molecular test such as RT-PCR, “is typically highly accurate and usually does not need to be repeated.”
False positives and false negatives are both dangerous, but, as Woloshin et al write, “False-negative results are more consequential because infected persons — who might be asymptomatic — may not be isolated and can infect others.”
We know how important this is, and how important it is to get it right. That’s why we’re applying our existing expertise in respiratory viruses and RT-PCR to provide COVID-19 testing you and your patients can trust.
It’s all part of our commitment to provide you with accurate, actionable, and timely analysis that empowers you to give your patients the very best in personalized care.
To learn more or arrange to get your patients tested, call us at (678) 433-0607 or contact us through our website today.
Atlanta-based LifeBrite, led by CEO Christian Fletcher, operates LifeBrite Laboratories, LifeBrite Community Hospital of Stokes, and Lifebrite Community Hospital of Early.