Thinking Differently, Mayo Clinic Laboratories Finds A New Supply Chain

From developing tests to detect the virus in a matter of months to testing patients for antibodies, Mayo Clinic Laboratories has been at the forefront of COVID-19 research by releasing more than a dozen COVID-19-related tests and analyzing more than 3 million COVID-19 tests for patients nationwide.
But Mayo Clinic experts stayed on the forefront of innovation to respond to the pandemic. When demand for testing swabs exploded last spring and supplies became scarce, Mayo Clinic Laboratories faced a serious problem. Without swabs, testing grinds to a halt and detecting the virus becomes extremely difficult.
What sounded like a straightforward assignment — find more swabs — became a massive effort that involved numerous departments and experts, and culminated with Mayo Clinic, for the first time, designing, testing and mass-manufacturing a new medical device listed with the Food and Drug Administration — the 3D-printed mid-turbinate swab.
That achievement reinforced a critical link in the supply chain, allowing Mayo Clinic to press forward with confidence.
Read more about how Mayo Clinic Laboratories' ingenuity, collaboration and expertise created a COVID-19 test swab.
Make a gift now to help transform the future of health care today.

When Judy Alico passed away at age 51, her family was shell-shocked and heartbroken. Her husband, Bob, took action, forming a nonprofit to raise awareness and funding for Mayo Clinic and other organizations to study the condition that took Judy's life.

Judy Ethen lost her father and brother to pancreatic cancer. Her own case was diagnosed and treated early through Mayo Clinic’s High-Risk Pancreas Clinic, made possible by a generous gift of $22.1 million.

In an old family farmhouse outside small Delavan, Minnesota, Mike Hoffman is getting to know his mom a bit better. She died nearly 40 years ago, but through a stack of yellowed letters, Mike and his wife, Tami, are delving into a part of her life that they didn't previously know much about -- her life built upon her nursing studies at Mayo Clinic.