UC Davis Health clinical laboratory specialists developed the capacity to run up to 200 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) tests a day using the Roche Cobas 6800 System. The commercial device has the capacity to perform up to 1,200 tests per day if the need arises.
we purchased this machine, it was delivered in december. It was kind of our christmas present but we didn't anticipate it was going to be used for this. The Roche cobalt 6800. This is effectively an instrument the size of an suv. It's a giant robot designed for high throughput high volume numbers of tests We had to cover the plan that was both quick to deploy but sustainable. Going from something that can test 20 tests a day to something that could test up to 1000 or more a day with a robot. 70% of all medical decisions are based on laboratory tests. So the information that we provide is really central to patient care to guiding treatment decisions and it really helps decrease anxiety, helps people plan really helps maintain calm in what's otherwise a very anxiety provoking time. Primary objectives are threefold deployed as early as feasible. Be able to scale for sustainability and then last but certainly not least then start targeting specific populations such as becoming faster testing for the emergency department. This is a new test. This is a very accurate and trustworthy test. We go through typically rigorous validations including now with this covid response that's why people are working 16 18 hours getting these tests online. We compare against multiple standards to ensure that we are either meeting or exceeding what the manufacturer has claimed and in this case we're seeing at least with the C. D. C. S. A A 91% sensitivity up to 100% specificity but we have to again prove it ourselves at our hospital just as the FDA requires because we are saving specimens because we are documenting what we see. Because we have epidemiologists and treating physicians and the entire team and the entire spectrum of expertise. We're able to take this knowledge and go forward and study for the future. The only easy day was yesterday. But that's why we're in this job. You know, it's part of the challenge. It makes this institution great were able to overcome it.
