When Dr. Elena Winters first joined Memorial Regional Hospital’s infectious disease department in 2019, the diagnosis process for complex infections often felt like solving a puzzle with missing pieces. Traditional culture methods sometimes took days or even weeks, leaving patients on broad-spectrum antibiotics while clinicians waited for answers.
“Those were agonizing days for both patients and medical teams,” recalls Dr. Winters. “We’d start empiric therapy based on our best guess, knowing we might be missing the mark entirely.”
Today, that scenario is increasingly rare at Memorial Regional. Like thousands of hospitals worldwide, they’ve embraced molecular diagnostic technologies that are fundamentally transforming how infectious diseases are identified and treated.
The Molecular Revolution: From Collection to Results
Memorial Regional’s diagnostic transformation began with a realization: accurate molecular testing requires excellence at every step—starting well before the sample reaches the laboratory.
“We initially focused on implementing cutting-edge detection platforms,” explains Dr. Michael Chen, Director of Memorial Regional’s Clinical Microbiology Laboratory. “But we quickly learned that even the most advanced testing system can’t overcome poor sample quality.”
That insight led the hospital to adopt Avam’s complete molecular diagnostic pathway, beginning with the NAsafe™ Nucleic Acid Molecular Transport Medium for sample collection.
“NAsafe™ completely changed our approach to sample collection,” notes Isabella Rodriguez, the hospital’s Lead Molecular Technologist. “With traditional transport media, we constantly battled sample degradation and RNA instability. Viral samples collected off-site would show significantly reduced sensitivity by the time they reached our lab.”
Avam’s NAsafe™ medium solved these challenges by inactivating microbes within 30 minutes and stabilizing nucleic acids for up to four weeks at room temperature—a critical advantage for samples from the hospital’s satellite clinics.
Real-World Impact: Speed Saves Lives
The impact of this comprehensive approach on patient care was immediate and profound.
For 68-year-old Robert Garcia, admitted with symptoms of sepsis, Avam’s end-to-end solution made a life-saving difference. When he arrived at the emergency department, samples were collected using NAsafe™ transport medium, immediately preserving the nucleic acids and inactivating pathogens for safer handling.
Within hours of admission, Memorial’s laboratory detected Klebsiella pneumoniae with an unusual resistance profile in his bloodstream using the DropDetect™ Sepsis Kit on the Digital Merase™ platform.
“The combination of NAsafe™ and Digital Merase™ technology was crucial in this case,” notes Dr. Chen. “The transport medium preserved the nucleic acids perfectly, allowing our digital PCR system to detect low-abundance resistance markers that traditional methods would have missed. That comprehensive result allowed us to switch from broad-spectrum antibiotics to targeted therapy within four hours of admission.”
Garcia recovered fully after a seven-day hospital stay—significantly shorter than the typical 14+ days for similar cases before implementing Avam’s complete molecular testing solution.
Beyond the Hospital: Community Impact
The benefits of Avam’s integrated collection and testing approach extend beyond the hospital walls. Memorial Regional serves several remote communities where patients often travel hours to reach specialized care.
“Before implementing NAsafe™, we couldn’t reliably run molecular tests on samples from our rural clinics,” explains Dr. Winters. “RNA would degrade during transport, especially in summer when temperatures in transport vehicles could get quite high. Now, community health workers collect samples in NAsafe™ media, knowing the nucleic acids will remain stable for weeks even at room temperature.”
This capability proved invaluable during a recent respiratory illness outbreak in a nursing facility 90 miles from the hospital. Samples collected from 42 residents were preserved in NAsafe™, then transported to Memorial Regional for analysis on Avam’s Real Merase™ qPCR system.
“We identified both Influenza A and a respiratory syncytial virus co-infection within hours,” Dr. Chen recalls. “The stability provided by NAsafe™ meant every sample yielded actionable results. We could immediately guide appropriate isolation procedures and treatment protocols, likely preventing dozens of additional infections.”
Enhancing Safety and Workflow Efficiency
Beyond preserving sample integrity, NAsafe™ has transformed laboratory safety protocols. By inactivating microbes within 30 minutes of collection, it creates a safer environment for laboratory personnel.
“Before NAsafe™, handling potentially infectious samples required extensive safety measures,” Rodriguez explains. “Now, samples arrive already inactivated but with perfectly preserved nucleic acids, allowing our team to process them with standard BSL-2 precautions instead of enhanced containment procedures.”
This safety advantage translates to workflow efficiencies. The laboratory has reduced sample processing time by 45 minutes per batch while maintaining strict safety standards.
Comprehensive Diagnostics: From Lab to Life ™
Memorial Regional’s comprehensive approach using Avam’s solutions has yielded impressive results:
Average time to pathogen identification decreased from 67 hours to 4.2 hours
Sample failure rates reduced from 8.2% to less than 1%
Time to optimal antimicrobial therapy reduced by 48 hours
Length of stay for patients with bloodstream infections decreased by 2.3 days
Annual antimicrobial costs reduced by $387,000
Looking Forward
As Avam continues to advance its molecular technologies, Memorial Regional is participating in early evaluations of next-generation systems that promise to further transform infectious disease management.
“What impresses us most about Avam is their comprehensive approach,” concludes Dr. Winters. “From innovative sample collection with NAsafe™ to cutting-edge detection with Digital Merase™, they understand that excellent diagnostics require attention to every step in the process. Their integrated systems aren’t just changing how we identify pathogens—they’re transforming how we care for patients with infectious diseases.”
Avam® NAsafe™ is an advanced nucleic acid transport medium designed to collect, inactivate, and preserve microbial and human nucleic acids with unparalleled efficiency. Ideal for molecular diagnostics, genetics research, and sequencing applications, NAsafe™ ensures sample integrity from collection to analysis.
Select options
This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page Show more
A Sudden Decline in Health In the quiet of a chilly October morning, 72-year-old Evelyn found herself being rushed to the hospital yet again, gripped by a familiar yet terrifying sensation: fever, weakness, and confusion. It had been nearly nine months since her health first began to decline. What started as bouts of fever quickly …
Beyond the Blood Culture: How Molecular Testing is Revolutionizing Infectious Disease Diagnosis
When Dr. Elena Winters first joined Memorial Regional Hospital’s infectious disease department in 2019, the diagnosis process for complex infections often felt like solving a puzzle with missing pieces. Traditional culture methods sometimes took days or even weeks, leaving patients on broad-spectrum antibiotics while clinicians waited for answers.
“Those were agonizing days for both patients and medical teams,” recalls Dr. Winters. “We’d start empiric therapy based on our best guess, knowing we might be missing the mark entirely.”
Today, that scenario is increasingly rare at Memorial Regional. Like thousands of hospitals worldwide, they’ve embraced molecular diagnostic technologies that are fundamentally transforming how infectious diseases are identified and treated.
The Molecular Revolution: From Collection to Results
Memorial Regional’s diagnostic transformation began with a realization: accurate molecular testing requires excellence at every step—starting well before the sample reaches the laboratory.
“We initially focused on implementing cutting-edge detection platforms,” explains Dr. Michael Chen, Director of Memorial Regional’s Clinical Microbiology Laboratory. “But we quickly learned that even the most advanced testing system can’t overcome poor sample quality.”
That insight led the hospital to adopt Avam’s complete molecular diagnostic pathway, beginning with the NAsafe™ Nucleic Acid Molecular Transport Medium for sample collection.
“NAsafe™ completely changed our approach to sample collection,” notes Isabella Rodriguez, the hospital’s Lead Molecular Technologist. “With traditional transport media, we constantly battled sample degradation and RNA instability. Viral samples collected off-site would show significantly reduced sensitivity by the time they reached our lab.”
Avam’s NAsafe™ medium solved these challenges by inactivating microbes within 30 minutes and stabilizing nucleic acids for up to four weeks at room temperature—a critical advantage for samples from the hospital’s satellite clinics.
Real-World Impact: Speed Saves Lives
The impact of this comprehensive approach on patient care was immediate and profound.
For 68-year-old Robert Garcia, admitted with symptoms of sepsis, Avam’s end-to-end solution made a life-saving difference. When he arrived at the emergency department, samples were collected using NAsafe™ transport medium, immediately preserving the nucleic acids and inactivating pathogens for safer handling.
Within hours of admission, Memorial’s laboratory detected Klebsiella pneumoniae with an unusual resistance profile in his bloodstream using the DropDetect™ Sepsis Kit on the Digital Merase™ platform.
“The combination of NAsafe™ and Digital Merase™ technology was crucial in this case,” notes Dr. Chen. “The transport medium preserved the nucleic acids perfectly, allowing our digital PCR system to detect low-abundance resistance markers that traditional methods would have missed. That comprehensive result allowed us to switch from broad-spectrum antibiotics to targeted therapy within four hours of admission.”
Garcia recovered fully after a seven-day hospital stay—significantly shorter than the typical 14+ days for similar cases before implementing Avam’s complete molecular testing solution.
Beyond the Hospital: Community Impact
The benefits of Avam’s integrated collection and testing approach extend beyond the hospital walls. Memorial Regional serves several remote communities where patients often travel hours to reach specialized care.
“Before implementing NAsafe™, we couldn’t reliably run molecular tests on samples from our rural clinics,” explains Dr. Winters. “RNA would degrade during transport, especially in summer when temperatures in transport vehicles could get quite high. Now, community health workers collect samples in NAsafe™ media, knowing the nucleic acids will remain stable for weeks even at room temperature.”
This capability proved invaluable during a recent respiratory illness outbreak in a nursing facility 90 miles from the hospital. Samples collected from 42 residents were preserved in NAsafe™, then transported to Memorial Regional for analysis on Avam’s Real Merase™ qPCR system.
“We identified both Influenza A and a respiratory syncytial virus co-infection within hours,” Dr. Chen recalls. “The stability provided by NAsafe™ meant every sample yielded actionable results. We could immediately guide appropriate isolation procedures and treatment protocols, likely preventing dozens of additional infections.”
Enhancing Safety and Workflow Efficiency
Beyond preserving sample integrity, NAsafe™ has transformed laboratory safety protocols. By inactivating microbes within 30 minutes of collection, it creates a safer environment for laboratory personnel.
“Before NAsafe™, handling potentially infectious samples required extensive safety measures,” Rodriguez explains. “Now, samples arrive already inactivated but with perfectly preserved nucleic acids, allowing our team to process them with standard BSL-2 precautions instead of enhanced containment procedures.”
This safety advantage translates to workflow efficiencies. The laboratory has reduced sample processing time by 45 minutes per batch while maintaining strict safety standards.
Comprehensive Diagnostics: From Lab to Life ™
Memorial Regional’s comprehensive approach using Avam’s solutions has yielded impressive results:
Looking Forward
As Avam continues to advance its molecular technologies, Memorial Regional is participating in early evaluations of next-generation systems that promise to further transform infectious disease management.
“What impresses us most about Avam is their comprehensive approach,” concludes Dr. Winters. “From innovative sample collection with NAsafe™ to cutting-edge detection with Digital Merase™, they understand that excellent diagnostics require attention to every step in the process. Their integrated systems aren’t just changing how we identify pathogens—they’re transforming how we care for patients with infectious diseases.”
Featured Products
Avam® NAsafe™ Nucleic Acid Molecular Transport Medium
$201.00 – $245.00Related
Related Posts
A Life-Saving Diagnosis: Evelyn’s Journey to Recovery
A Sudden Decline in Health In the quiet of a chilly October morning, 72-year-old Evelyn found herself being rushed to the hospital yet again, gripped by a familiar yet terrifying sensation: fever, weakness, and confusion. It had been nearly nine months since her health first began to decline. What started as bouts of fever quickly …