PHYSICIAN OFFICE LAB
Taking it Home A look at the emerging home testing market.
With the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, most of us have spent more time at home in the past two years
than in previous years. Sheltering-at-home mandates, companies offering employees the flexibility to work from home and good common sense have changed our behavior in many ways, especially in what home means to us. More time at home has changed life in many ways: home sales are up substantially as well as home improvement projects, probably reflective of our desire to improve the environment where we are spending so much time. Testing and healthcare visit patterns have undergone significant change as well. Virtual visits have grown rapidly, pop-up testing facilities offering either on-site testing or on-site sample collection for testing in a clinical lab have emerged as a significant trend. Unsurprisingly, testing at home either under a physician prescription or by patient direction has become a dominant factor particularly for SARS CoV-2 antigen (COVID-19) detection. Under EUA, there were 17 COVID-19 antigen detection kits available for home use at press time. The U.S. federal government has implemented a program to provide four home use COVID-19 antigen tests per house4
April 2022
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www.repertoiremag.com
By Jim Poggi
hold. At least 500 million tests are planned for distribution under this program and the first wave of tests has already become available. In addition, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the Department of Health and Human services is providing HRSAsupported healthcare centers and Medicare certified rural health clinics with no cost COVID-19 antigen test kits for patient distribution.
