Health & Treatments

ID NOW is a lightweight and portable device that allows testing to occur near the patient to get a rapid result, including in physicians' offices, urgent care settings, and hospital emergency departments.

The ID NOW testing process is safe and does not endanger operators as long as the collection and processing of samples follow the universal precaution techniques outlined by CDC guidelines.

The ID NOW COVID-19 test is a rapid, molecular point-of-care test process that can detect COVID-19 within 13 minutes or less. The toaster-size device works by heating nasal samples in an acidic solution that cracks open the envelope of the viruses. Exposing their RNA, which ID NOW amplifies at a constant temperature instead of the heating and cooling cycles that PCR machines use. Gaining emergency authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration in late March, the COVID-19 ID NOW test was one of the first tests accessible to the US public.

Abbott received an emergency use authorization (EUA) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the ID NOW COVID-19 test in March 2020. ID NOW molecular point-of-care test met all testing criteria in the FDA's emergency use authorization (EUA), Abbott trying to collect more clinical data from the field. The ID NOW uses molecular technology and molecular tests in general are valued for their high level of accuracy in similar settings such as flu testing.

ID NOW is an FDA approved CLIA-waived instrument, means that the technology can be used in settings outside the traditional hospital setting. The direct swab method is the best way to ensure the test performs as expected. To optimize results, do not use viral transport media (VTM), which could reduce the sensitivity of the test through dilution.

ID NOW has been in use since 2014 to detect flu, strep, and RSV. Clinicians and lab professionals have been using the same ID NOW instrument, collection swabs, and consumables (such as the sample receiver and transfer cartridge) to safely test respiratory viruses during this time. Healthcare professionals using ID NOW should be trained on how to use the instrument.

The machine producing 50,000 COVID-19 tests everyday for ID NOW system. They are continuing to ramp up ID NOW manufacturing and plan to increase capacity to 2 million tests a month by June, they are working to expand beyond that. Currently, the ID NOW COVID-19 test is available only in the U.S. under emergency use authorization (EUA) as this is where the majority of our ID NOW instruments are in use today.

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