It’s not often that we get to meet the voices we hear on the radio, but it’s also pretty rare to meet a pathologist or the medical scientist responsible for performing your pathology tests.
The KPKH team was fortunate to be able to bring together pathology and media with a visit from ABC Producer Will Ockenden to a Hobart Pathology laboratory.
Working as part of the ABC’s Coronacast podcast team, Will already knew quite a bit about the COVID-19 response. However, this was his first time inside a pathology laboratory and seeing behind the scenes of testing for SARS-CoV-2.
“It was fascinating to see how a pathology lab operates, and it was especially amazing to see the COVID-19 testing system from the start to the end,” said Will.
Here’s a snapshot of Will’s tour.
Following the journey of the swab starts at specimen reception with Brad Gye
In the molecular lab Medical Scientist, Felix Donnellan shows how the samples are prepared to go onto the instrument for their first step of the PCR process.
Corrine McCallum, Scientific Head of Department for Microbiology and Molecular Pathology and Rhiannon Timperon, Supervising Scientist for Molecular Pathology use a reference sample to demonstrate to Will the positive curve when the sample goes through the amplification process and is analysed for viral RNA.
Like many around Australia, this lab also has the capacity to perform rapid tests when needed. Microbiologist Alistair McGregor explains the process to Will.
Keep your ears open for the piece which is due to air on ABC Radio in the coming weeks. Follow us on Facebook for updates on the latest media interest in all things pathology.
