On the COVID-19 testing frontline Working for a pathology provider in the public health sector during a pandemic became the dream job for Kylie Howard, who works as a Medical Scientist at SA Pathology in Adelaide. ‘It’s a high-pressure environment, and our team has been thrust into contributing a vital part of public healthcare:pandemic. ‘I’ve been working with a fantastic team of people responsible for the Public Health system’s activity managing the SARS-CoV2 NAT (Nucleic acid testing). We moved from testing 60,000 NAT tests in a calendar year to testing over 1 million samples in the same time frame. This total test number does not include the standard in-house assays we have also continued to provide,’ says Kylie. ‘I work in and manage the Quality Control area which has been responsible for producing Mastermix and control material for the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) assays for the duration of the pandemic to date.
Kylie Howard (BMedSci ’12)
‘I have also been working on development projects by modifying current assays and evaluating commercial kit testing platforms in infectious diseases. As a team, our laboratory won the Premier’s Award for Excellence in Health for 2020. I am proud to have been part of a team that has been challenged and tested for a sustained period and has produced consistent, high quality results.’
While the work has been extremely demanding, it has also been professionally rewarding and created a lot of opportunities for people to really rise to the challenge. A particular inspiration for Kylie is her mentor and current supervisor, Head of SA Pathology’s Unit for Public Health and Epidemiology, Mark Turra — who has a Bachelor of Science (1996) from Flinders. As a child Kylie wanted to be an archaeologist and began arts and nursing degrees before her interest in microbiology led her to study Medical Science.
Reflecting upon her time at Flinders University, Kylie can see the qualities learned have been exactly those needed for a public health response to a pandemic.
‘I realise that our Flinders experience imbued us with certain characteristics. We support, we share, we collaborate, and we recognise how much more powerful it is to achieve together.’
College of Medicine and Public Health Alumni Magazine
