Base lab playing a huge role in testing

Commander of Air Force lab reflects on the historicmoment.

A lab at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is playing an important part in determining if people at Department of Defense facilities throughout the United States have COVID-19.

The division chief for the 711th Human PerformanceWing’s U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine Public Health and Epidemiology Laboratory Service recently spoke exclusively with the Dayton Daily News about the lab’s role.

Lt. Col. Aaron Lambert said the lab is running more tests for COVID-19, the illness caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, than any Department of Defense facility.

“Our people have always been ready for this, probably not in this capacity,” Lambert said. “I

have an amazing crew here, and without them, this definitely can’t get done. I know they’re all out there, they’re all working hard. And it shows. They’re very proud of what they do.”

He added: “They’re proud that

they can come in every day and make a difference.”

When it comes to combating the spread of COVID-19, knowledge is key, and that’swhere the

erations of consumers out there. Some like to make the telephone call and talk to a person and some prefer to do everything electronically and others like a mix. We just make sure we have availablewhatever our patients and consumers are asking for,” Pleiman said.

Having the option of online scheduling canattract patients looking for convenience and reduce administrative burdens by having patients schedule themselves.

Small studies indicate direct scheduling is linked with lower patient no-show rates.

A study published in August of the Journal of the American Medical Association looked at the characteristics associated with the online medical visit scheduling and found patients that were early adopters of direct schedulingweremore oftenyoung, white, andcommercially insured, hadmore co-morbidities, and higher prior utilization, compared with non- adopters in the same practices. The study looked at an academicmedical center with 17 primary care sites coveringmorethan 65,000 patients.

Contact this reporterat kaitlin.schroeder@coxinc. com.

Amedical specimen processing assistant fromtheUnited States Air Force School ofAerospace Medicine’s Epidemiology Laboratory logs in samples for COVID-19 testing in June.

U.S. AIR FORCE PHOTOS BY RICHARD ELDRIDGE Technicians in theUnited States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine’s Epidemiology Laboratory unload newshipments of potential COVID-19 samples in June.