SYRACUSE — The COVID-19 test that’s been used for extensive testing of SUNY students now has the go-ahead to for use on a wider scale. 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted emergency-use authorization for the individual saliva swab diagnostic test for COVID-19 that SUNY Upstate Medical University and Quadrant Biosciences Inc. developed. 

Quadrant Biosciences is based in Syracuse. The company, which was founded in 2015 by CEO Richard Uhlig, says it “works with top academic institutions, medical researchers and engineers to translate breakthrough findings scientifically sound epigenetic diagnostic tools.” These tools are part of the growing Clarifi diagnostic platform and address a number of neurological-health challenges.

So far, this test has been used to support SUNY’s widespread testing of students across campuses, but the emergency-use authorization will help additional labs begin to use this test, “helping pinpoint and contain” the virus and protect New Yorkers, the office of Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. 

In August, the New York State Department of Health granted approval for SUNY Upstate Medical University to use the test for surveillance testing purposes in the SUNY student body. With the FDA authorization, this new test will now be available for use throughout the State of New York and the U.S. by “high-complexity” clinical laboratories serving patients at physicians’ offices, urgent-care clinics, and hospitals. 

FDA approval of this “game-changing” COVID-19 test demonstrates the “ingenuity of the State University of New York to solve pressing issues,” SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras contended in a statement.

“With this approval the innovation developed by Upstate Medical and Quadrant Biosciences will be leveraged on a national scale. This quick, noninvasive testing protocol — which has already boosted SUNY’s testing capacity to 120,000 tests per week — will now help communities across the country better pinpoint and contain COVID-19,” Malatras said. 

The FDA-authorized saliva test for individuals complements Upstate Medical’s and Quadrant’s pool testing, which allows for about 10 to 25 people to be screened in one COVID-19 test. The FDA’s approval of the test means it can be brought to scale across New York state as well as used nationwide. 

The approved tests can be conducted using saliva swabs rather than swabs inserted in a person’s nose. Individuals administer the tests themselves, swabbing their mouths, and provide the saliva samples, which are currently processed at SUNY Upstate Medical Center’s laboratory. 

“This is indeed a game-changer,” Dr. Mantosh Dewan, interim president of SUNY Upstate Medical University, said. “We have seen the benefits of this testing here in New York state as we have used it to test significant numbers of individuals quickly and safely to keep our communities, and in the case of our current testing work, local school districts and college campuses safe.”      

SYRACUSE — St. Joseph’s Health on Sept. 28 announced it has signed an agreement to sell Franciscan Companies, its durable medical equipment (DME) company, to AdaptHealth, a national network of medical-equipment companies.

St. Joseph’s Health declined to disclose the sale price in the transaction that will close Oct. 31, per an email response to a CNYBJ inquiry. 

Franciscan Companies is an affiliate of St. Joseph’s Health. AdaptHealth (NASDAQ: AHCO) is headquartered in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia.

AdaptHealth has operations in 39 states. The company’s mission is similar to that of Franciscan Companies in helping patients to “live their fullest lives — out of the hospital and in their homes,” St. Joseph’s Health said. 

In addition to 36 employees at the North Syracuse–based Franciscan Health Support offices, this sale will also impact 10 employees who are based in Binghamton at the Lourdes Health Support location, St. Joseph’s Health said. 

“The decision to sell Franciscan wasn’t made lightly, as it has been an important part of the St. Joseph’s Health family since 1983,” Janet Ready, COO at St. Joseph’s Health, said in a statement. “This move will allow St. Joseph’s Health to focus on our core business of acute, ambulatory/outpatient, and primary care.” 

In the email, Ready told CNYBJ that St. Joseph’s Health used a request-for-proposal process to vet interest, and the organization selected the “most appropriate” buyer based upon criteria set and the offer price.

St. Joseph’s Health noted that the health-care environment has had “significant changes” in recent years. Debate over the type and structure of health services in the country, continual decreases in reimbursement, rising costs, and demand for greater efficiency are just a few of the challenges that health-care organizations face. 

“These changes are impacting everyone,” St. Joseph’s Health added. 

When asked if the COVID-19 pandemic played any role the St. Joseph’s Health pursuit of the sale, Ready replied, “The financial decisions did not directly play a role as consideration to sell the DME company preceded COVID. However, COVID did accelerate our decision as we recognized a need to focus more closely on our core service offerings, such as inpatient, ambulatory, and primary care. AdaptHealth’s primary business is in the DME space and its mission most closely aligned with Franciscan’s.”

The Franciscan Companies offices and warehouses will remain in their current locations in Onondaga and Broome Counties and be operated by AdaptHealth beginning Nov. 1. 

Most Franciscan employees have been offered positions with AdaptHealth. Ready told CNYBJ that, as of Sept. 29, it appears four employees won’t be joining AdaptHealth. Some of those employees could apply for openings at St. Joseph’s Health, she noted. 

Beginning Nov. 1, Franciscan Health Support and Lourdes Health Support will become AdaptHealth New York. Moving forward, St. Joseph’s Health will utilize AdaptHealth’s services as a preferred provider for all DME. 

AdaptHealth is “well-positioned” to provide Franciscan and Lourdes Health Support customers with services and “access to innovative technology,” St. Joseph’s Health contends.         

UTICA, N.Y. — It’s an entirely online course that Utica College says can help those who work in the health-care field — or plan to in the future.

The new “English for Healthcare” course will combine health-care related vocabulary, grammar, and communication skills into an “accelerated,” 15-module course, the school said.

The new class “places focus on relevant topics that reflect daily health-care interactions” including patient history, insurance, billing, public health, mental health, and other topics. The course was designed with input from health-care partners, clinicians, and faculty.

The course begins Oct. 26 and a student can complete it in eight weeks. Students can also choose to enroll in the 15-week program beginning on Jan. 18, 2021.

Elizabeth Nassar, director of academic business development at Utica College, said the college’s clinical partners in Florida have indicated that this course is their “greatest need.” 

Utica College in September 2018 opened a nursing site in Miramar, Florida, per the college’s website.

“We know of so many wonderful employees who want to help patients and move to other areas of the hospital, but they simply cannot, because their English skills need to be further developed. The pandemic has made the need for this course even more urgent,” Nassar contended in a statement.

The cost of the course is $900. If students earn admission into one of Utica College’s health-care programs after completing the course, the school will award them a $450 tuition credit. 

The announcement of the new course follows the college’s early-September announcement of the IDEAS (Increase and Diversify Education Abroad for U.S. Students) grant from the U.S. Department of State’s Capacity Building Program for U.S. Study Abroad. 

That funding seeks to aid students in diversifying their education within the health-care field.      

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Upstate University Hospital says it has a new tool for use in performing minimally invasive brain surgery.

The ROSA brain robot is a surgical navigation and positioning system that allows surgeons at Upstate to perform procedures “more accurately, with fewer complications and sometimes in half the time as before.” It “offers a higher level of accuracy and in many cases reduces procedure time by several hours,” the organization said. ROSA stands for robotic surgical assistant.

Upstate didn’t specify how much it paid to purchase the robot technology. 

So far, Upstate Medical surgeons have used the technology for a pediatric laser ablation and for a procedure to treat epilepsy in an adult. 

Dr. Gaddum Reddy, director of adult functional neurosurgery at Upstate, specializes in epilepsy and epilepsy surgery. Reddy described what’s called an invasive monitoring procedure he performs to identify the source of seizures in epileptic patients. Originally, the procedure was completed with a craniotomy, which involves removing a piece of skull bone. That procedure has since evolved to drilling tiny holes in the skull to place depth electrodes in the brain. Reddy said using that method, he could place 10 electrodes in about six hours.

In a recent, similar procedure using the ROSA brain robot, Reddy said he was able to place 18 electrodes in just four hours.

“I was basically able to place twice as many electrodes in half the time,” he said. 

His ability to place more electrodes gives him a better chance of identifying where the seizures are coming from. ROSA robot allows him to map placement of the electrodes with “greater speed and precision,” Reddy noted.

“The biggest benefit of the robot is twofold. It speeds up the process so rather than me having to manually put in these numbers (to map electrode placement), I put them all into the computer that’s attached to the robot and the robot goes from one point to the next point very quickly,” Reddy said. “There’s a lot of chance for error when I’m putting those points in. Using the robot, the accuracy was as good if not better and the risk of mistake was significantly lower because the machine takes care of all of the numbers.”

Dr. Zulma Tovar Spinoza is director of pediatric neurosurgery, director of pediatric epilepsy surgery of neurosurgery and director of the laser ablation program of neurosurgery at Upstate Medical University. 

She is also using the ROSA brain robot, having most recently used it in a successful pediatric laser ablation surgery, Upstate Medical said. 

“Everything went exceptionally well,” Spinoza said of that procedure using the ROSA brain robot.

Reddy and Tovar Spinoza both said they anticipate using the ROSA robot for most if not all future laser ablations and depth-electrode placement procedures.

Upstate says it is the “only hospital” in Central New York using the ROSA brain robot, which is housed at the downtown campus and created by device manufacturer Zimmer Biomet. The robot can also be used in deep brain stimulation, trans-nasal and ventricular endoscopy, and brain biopsies.

Reddy said this new method and technology decreases the risk of infection, hemorrhage, and wound healing. 

“This allows Upstate to treat our patients more effectively, faster and more accurately with less chance of complications,” Reddy said.

CORTLAND, N.Y. — Cayuga Health announced it recently opened Cayuga Orthopedics Immediate Care at Specialty Services of CMA in Cortland.

Cayuga Orthopedics Immediate Care, located at 1122 Commons Avenue, offers onsite walk-in appointments. Medical services include diagnosis and treatment of upper and lower-extremity issues, injuries, fractures, arthritis, tendonitis, and bursitis, along with casting and full onsite ortho equipment (including braces, boots, splints, orthotics, and crutches).

Cayuga Orthopedics Immediate Care is open Monday through Friday, from 12:30-3:30 p.m. No appointment is needed.

The clinic is staffed by Dr. Blake Marson, an orthopedic surgeon with over 30 years of experience, and a complete ortho support team. Patients will also receive enhanced access to Cayuga Subspecialty surgeons.

“Typically, patients want to be seen by an orthopedic specialist right away,” Dr. Marson said in a release. “The idea of our Immediate Care center is for any patient, covering a variety of orthopedic problems, to be able to get the care that they need at the very highest level.”

Cayuga Health has two hospitals, Cayuga Medical Center and Schuyler Hospital, as well as a multi-specialty group, Cayuga Medical Associates. Cayuga Health employs a total of 2,200 people, including affiliated organizations.