The University of Tennessee Health Science Center’s College of Medicine has produced a training video detailing the proper protocol for collecting nasopharyngeal samples to test for coronavirus infection.
The video is intended for distribution to hospitals, clinical care providers, and testing sites as a guide to ensure proper procedure is used at the various sites in the city and across the state.
The UTHSC College of Medicine, working with the Shelby County Health Department and the City of Memphis, opened a drive-thru testing site at the Mid-South Fairgrounds in Memphis March 20. The site is staffed primarily by UTHSC medical students under the supervision of physician faculty. The site is now performing approximately 150 to 200 tests a day by appointment.
“As we all work together to combat the challenge presented by COVID-19, we realized that people were using diverse testing procedures to swab for the virus,” said Scott Strome, MD, executive dean of the UTHSC College of Medicine. “In order to facilitate appropriate testing, we prepared a short educational video that we hope will be helpful.”
Sanjeet Rangarajan, MD, M.Eng., assistant professor and director of the Division of Rhinology and Endoscopic Skull Base Surgery at UTHSC, worked on the video. “A nasal swab can be an anxiety provoking experience for both patient and clinician alike, especially when trying to determine COVID-19 status,” he said. “We developed this video to demonstrate the relevant nasal anatomy and proper process for obtaining a sample in order to build confidence and familiarity with the process for our patients and team alike. The establishment of the UTHSC Mobile Testing Center in Memphis has allowed us to provide much-needed diagnostic capacity for patients who can get tested from the comfort of their car.”
The video, which features scenes from the Tiger Lane testing site, is available at the UTHSC coronavirus resource page at https://uthsc.edu/coronavirus/resources.php.