Starting this week, Michigan Technological University will begin testing patient samples for COVID-19, working alongside regional health care providers.
With delays in testing across the nation, rural and remote regions like Michigan’s Upper Peninsula have been hard pressed to get enough tests for patients. But there is hope.
Michigan Tech has partnered with local hospitals to begin to save doctors and health care providers at least 24 hours, and up to a week, of waiting for COVID-19 test results. The lab has the capacity to run 40 samples per hour on two machines, and the team has plans to expand with more equipment and staffing.
Leading the Lab
Dr. Cary Gottlieb, pathologist from OSF St. Francis Hospital in Escanaba, is the lab director. The technical leads are Caryn Heldt and David Dixon, and the team includes Steve Techtmann, Ebenezer Tumban, Kristin Brzeski and Carsten Kulheim, with support from Karyn Fay, Claire Danielson, Brigitte Morin, Sean Kirkpatrick, Guiliang Tang, Jennifer Sanders and Julie Seppala.
