What You’re Missing in Your Respiratory Pathogen Detection

Unless otherwise noted, P.A.C.E.™ accreditation will expire six months after the live webinar.

Exploring Real-Time PCR Technology

Globally, upper respiratory infections from influenza and non-influenza viruses are two of the most common reasons for physician visits and hospitalizations. In the United States, more than $50 billion is spent annually to address these ailments. Patients with these respiratory viral infections often develop concomitant or subsequent infections from Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, Moraxella catarrhalis,Staphylococcus aureus, and other pathogenic bacteria.

Physicians may order only viral tests, but should also consider the bacterial and fungal co-infections shown to be a major cause of increased morbidity and mortality. New panel-based syndromic molecular solutions offer simultaneous laboratory testing for viral, bacterial, and fungal pathogens, but this has not solved the issues of scalability, cost per sample, and flexibility — challenges which must be overcome to support the ever-changing demands of patient care.

In this P.A.C.E.-accredited Fisher Healthcare webinar, Vijay Singh, PhD, and David Hillyard, MD, will discuss how laboratories can use real-time PCR technology to detect multiple pathogens while still controlling the cost of testing. They’ll share details about their implementation of these solutions, the insight into respiratory pathogen detection that they gained, and how they scaled the solutions to meet various throughput requirements.

Learning Objectives

This webinar will help you:

• Identify the limitations of traditional methods of respiratory infection testing
• Explain the importance of simultaneously testing for multiple pathogens
• Describe new technology options for laboratory testing
• Discuss considerations for transitioning to these new technologies

Watch On Demand      Download Slides (PDF, 2.5 MB)

This webinar is produced by Whitehat Communications, a provider of continuing education programs in clinical laboratory sciences that has been approved by the ASCLS P.A.C.E. Program. One P.A.C.E. credit hour will be provided for this complimentary, basic-level program.

Vijay Singh, PhD

Dr. Singh is the Managing Principal Scientist for Molecular Diagnostics at HealthTrackRx in Denton, Texas. He has been in this role for three years and leads molecular tests for pathogen targets on the qPCR nonofluidics platform. He earned his PhD in molecular biology and completed post-doctoral training in metabolic engineering at the University of North Texas.

David R. Hillyard, MD

Dr. Hillyard is a Professor of Pathology at the University of Utah School of Medicine. He received his medical degree from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons with a focus on anatomic and clinical pathology and completed fellowships in medical microbiology and microbial genetics.