As much as SARS-CoV-2 has altered the way humans live since the beginning of 2020,<br/>this virus's deadly nature has required clinical testing to meet 2020's demands of higher<br/>throughput, higher accuracy and higher efficiency. Information technology has allowed<br/>institutions, like Arizona State University (ASU), to make strategic and operational changes to<br/>combat the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. At ASU, information technology was one of the six facets<br/>identified in the ongoing review of the ASU Biodesign Clinical Testing Laboratory (ABCTL)<br/>among business, communications, management/training, law, and clinical analysis. The first<br/>chapter of this manuscript covers the background of clinical laboratory automation and details<br/>the automated laboratory workflow to perform ABCTL’s COVID-19 diagnostic testing. The<br/>second chapter discusses the usability and efficiency of key information technology systems of<br/>the ABCTL. The third chapter explains the role of quality control and data management within<br/>ABCTL’s use of information technology. The fourth chapter highlights the importance of data<br/>modeling and 10 best practices when responding to future public health emergencies.

As much as SARS-CoV-2 has altered the way humans live since the beginning of 2020, this virus's deadly nature has required clinical testing to meet 2020's demands of higher throughput, higher accuracy and higher efficiency. Information technology has allowed institutions, like Arizona State University (ASU), to make strategic and operational changes to combat the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. At ASU, information technology was one of the six facets identified in the ongoing review of the ASU Biodesign Clinical Testing Laboratory (ABCTL) among business, communications, management/training, law, and clinical analysis. The first chapter of this manuscript covers the background of clinical laboratory automation and details the automated laboratory workflow to perform ABCTL’s COVID-19 diagnostic testing. The second chapter discusses the usability and efficiency of key information technology systems of the ABCTL. The third chapter explains the role of quality control and data management within ABCTL’s use of information technology. The fourth chapter highlights the importance of data modeling and 10 best practices when responding to future public health emergencies.

This project is designed as part of the multi-student ASU Biodesign Clinical Testing Laboratory (ABCTL) thesis project sponsored and organized by Dr. Carolyn Compton, professor of Life Sciences at ASU and medical director with the ABCTL. This project divides students into teams with Business, Law, Laboratory, IT, and Documentary focused groups, with the goal of providing a comprehensive overview of the operations of the ABCTL as a reference for other institutions and to produce a documentary film about the laboratory. As a member of the IT team, this writeup will focus on quality control throughout the transfer of data in the testing process, security and privacy of data, HIPAA and regulatory compliance, and accessibility of data while maintaining such restrictions.

As much as SARS-CoV-2 has altered the way humans live since the beginning of 2020, this virus's deadly nature has required clinical testing to meet 2020's demands of higher throughput, higher accuracy and higher efficiency. Information technology has allowed institutions, like Arizona State University (ASU), to make strategic and operational changes to combat the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. At ASU, information technology was one of the six facets identified in the ongoing review of the ASU Biodesign Clinical Testing Laboratory (ABCTL) among business, communications, management/training, law, and clinical analysis. The first chapter of this manuscript covers the background of clinical laboratory automation and details the automated laboratory workflow to perform ABCTL’s COVID-19 diagnostic testing. The second chapter discusses the usability and efficiency of key information technology systems of the ABCTL. The third chapter explains the role of quality control and data management within ABCTL’s use of information technology. The fourth chapter highlights the importance of data modeling and 10 best practices when responding to future public health emergencies.

The ASU BioDesign Clinical Testing Laboratory (ABCTL) was created to offer an accurate, less invasive, less labor intensive, and less resource draining public COVID-19 testing location in Arizona. The goal of this thesis project was to document the intra-organizational communication channels related to changing testing practices as the ABCTL evolved. This was done through a review of internal and external media, pressers, and an interview with Joshua LaBaer. By documenting internal communication channels, specifically those related to changes in testing, similar communication channels and results could be replicable in the future if an outside organization wished to transform an academic research lab into a viral testing facility.

The SolarSPELL Health: Nursing and Midwifery library was created to provide health students and professionals in developing and underprivileged countries with resources for evidence based practice learning, and to help improve women’s health in the country with the highest maternal mortality rate in the world. Our team partnered with local health schools to identify the greatest areas of need. The SolarSPELL team searched for open access materials aimed towards students and professionals in the health field, ensured that this content was relevant to the location and took into account the resources available, curated this content and ensured consistency throughout the process, and lastly packaged the material in a platform that was easy to access and navigate. South Sudan is the newest country in the world, and they lack significant resources, as do all of the countries that SolarSPELL serves. Receiving this library will allow the health students and professionals in South Sudan to utilize the resources they currently have, to provide evidenced based care, both saving and improving lives.

This Project Report documents the accomplishments of an extraordinary group of students, faculty, and staff at the Arizona state University, who participated in a year-long, multidisciplinary, first-of-its-kind academic endeavor entitled “The Making of a COVID Lab.” The lab that is the focus of this project is the ASU Biodesign Clinical Testing Laboratory, known simply as the ABCTL.