Newswise — OAK BROOK, Ill. – In response to the critical shortage of nasopharyngeal (NP) swabs early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Radiology at University of South Florida (USF) Health in Tampa set out to design, validate and create NP swabs using a point-of-care 3D printer. Results of the first clinical trial of 3D-printed NP swabs for COVID-19 testing are being presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
“To date, USF Health has printed more than 100,000 3D NP swabs, and hospitals around the world have used our 3D files to print tens of millions more swabs for point-of-care use,” said Summer Decker, Ph.D., associate professor, vice chair for research, and director of the 3D Clinical Applications for the Department of Radiology in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine and Tampa General Hospital.
The 3D swab has received national and international recognition as…