NHS England and NHS Improvement have begun to use an online crowdsourcing platform to gather ideas from experts on stepping up the rate of coronavirus testing.
They have deployed the Crowdicity software-as-a-service platform from ‘experience management’ specialist Medallia in the effort to hit the Government’s target of 100,000 tests per day.
This has led to the launch of the Testing Methods Sourcing Platform backed by the Department for Health and Social Care, the Royal College of Pathologists, the UK Bioindustry Association and the Briitish In Vitro Diagnostic Association. It is aimed at supporting health organisations, academia, testing lab, pharmaceutical organisations and industry in sharing ideas and good practice and agreeing on viable solutions to a handful of testing challenges.
These include: developing low volume blood collection and sample elution for serology testing; increasing the availability of dry swabs for use in virus detection; minimising processes for transporting media that inactivates the virus; developing machines for point of care testing; and finding new methods of extracting viral RNA or enabling detection of the virus without extraction.
Professor Dame Sue Hill, chief scientific officer at NHS England and NHS Improvement said: “Through collaborative initiatives like this, we can bring together the brightest and the best to help us introduce innovative solutions to ramp up our testing capacity and achieve the ambitious target that has been set of 100,000 tests a day for the benefit of patients, NHS and social care staff and those working in other sectors.”
Medallia said it delivered the platform in less than 48 hours.
Image: Detail of platform home page
