Implementation of the Abbott ID Now COVID-19 assay at a tertiary care center: a prospective pragmatic implementation study during the third wave of SARS-CoV-2 in Ontario

Vincent Deslandes; Eric Clark; Venkatesh Thiruganasambandamoorthy; Marc Desjardins

doi:10.1016/j.diagmicrobio.2021.115609

Implementation of the Abbott ID Now COVID-19 assay at a tertiary care center: a prospective pragmatic implementation study during the third wave of SARS-CoV-2 in Ontario

Diagn Microbiol Infect Dis. 2022 Mar;102(3):115609. doi: 10.1016/j.diagmicrobio.2021.115609. Epub 2021 Nov 27.

Authors

Vincent Deslandes¹, Eric Clark², Venkatesh Thiruganasambandamoorthy², Marc Desjardins³

Affiliations

¹ University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada; The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI), Ottawa, ON, Canada; Eastern Ontario Regional Laboratory Association (EORLA), Ottawa, ON, Canada. Electronic address: vdeslandes@eorla.ca.
² University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada; The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI), Ottawa, ON, Canada; Department of Emergency Medicine, The Ottawa Hospital, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
³ University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada; The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI), Ottawa, ON, Canada; Eastern Ontario Regional Laboratory Association (EORLA), Ottawa, ON, Canada.

Abstract

The Abbott ID Now COVID-19 assay is a point-of-care molecular diagnostic tool for the detection of SARS-CoV-2. We prospectively monitored implementation of the assay in a tertiary care hospital emergency department (ED) for the diagnosis of early symptomatic patients. A total of 269 paired nasopharyngeal swabs were tested in parallel with the ID Now and laboratory-based molecular methodologies, 191 of which met selection criteria for testing based on symptoms description and duration. Forty-six and 48 samples were positive for SARS-CoV-2 with the ID Now and reference molecular assays respectively. Percent positive and negative agreement were high (93.8% and 99.6% respectively), as were the sensitivity and specificity (93.8% and 99.5%). ID Now results were available 17.47 hours earlier than qRT-PCR. In symptomatic patients seen in ED within 7 to 10 days of symptoms onset, the ID Now COVID-19 assay allows for rapid and accurate detection of infection.

Keywords: ID Now; Rapid diagnostic; SARS-CoV-2.

MeSH terms

COVID-19 Testing
COVID-19*
Humans
Ontario
Prospective Studies
SARS-CoV-2*
Sensitivity and Specificity
Tertiary Care Centers