How a year of COVID-19 testing challenged and strengthened state lab

One of the biggest battles against COVID-19 for the past year has been waged right in the middle of the Corridor, at the State Hygienic Laboratory in the University of Iowa Research Park in Coralville.

This past Monday, March 8, marked one year - and more than 1 million tests - since SHL confirmed Iowa's first case of the virus, signaling what soon would become a global pandemic.

As a longtime public health official who has seen his share of diseases run amok, I know one thing for certain: the basic rule of a crisis is that you don't come out of it the same. It is an opportunity for change, for better or worse. The pandemic has given us a chance to look at many things differently. In my case, it's shown me just what the dedicated staff of SHL is capable of in a time when their expertise and resolve was most needed.

In particular, I want to thank many of the people who have worked tirelessly since the pandemic began. At SHL and in the UI Office of the Vice President for Research (to which SHL reports), that included on our Incident Command Team:

Incident Commander: Wade Aldous.

Safety Officer: Drew Fayram.

Public Information: Steve Pradarelli and Shari Heick.

Information Technology: Frank Delin.

Operations: Jeff Benfer.

Planning: Mike Schueller and Alyssa Mattson.

Finance: Pam Lenz.

Staffing: Julie Cunningham.

As we moved into the more intense phases of the pandemic, we added others, including Sherri Marine, Don Simmons, Ryan Jepson, Michelle Sexton, Mark Pendergast, Cynthia Cass, Wendy Loney and Amy Haldeman.

The strides we've made in ramping up testing for COVID-19 were only possible because of ongoing cooperation with our partners at the Iowa Department of Public Health, the Governor's Office, and the Iowa State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. We also appreciate the outstanding support we have received from UI President Bruce Harreld and Vice President for Research Marty Scholtz.

SHL was fortunate at the start of the pandemic to have a core group of well-trained molecular biologists, IT staff, and personnel to manage test kit distribution, data entry, sample receiving, accessioning (tracking and routing samples as they arrived), and storage. It was also critical to our success that we had a well-equipped laboratory in place when COVID-19 hit.

In February 2020, we weren't sure what to expect in terms of virus spread.

As we got further along, however, it became clear we would have to shift from performing just a few hundred tests per day to processing thousands of samples per day. Fortunately, the laboratory has been able to expand its capabilities over the past 12 months and transform itself into a high-throughput facility.

That work involved acquiring new, automated instruments and adding staff. In fact, SHL's workforce has increased more than 30 percent to meet the testing demands. Additionally, we've reassigned staff internally whenever possible and hired excellent term and temporary employees to help us keep pace.

SHL supervisors and staff have worked hard, and around the clock, to meet the demands of large volume testing by bringing efficiencies to our processes that have reduced turnaround time and increased our capacity.

All this is took place while SHL continued providing its normal services, ranging from newborn screening to testing for foodborne illnesses and of water from rivers, streams and groundwater to help protect Iowan's health.

We've learned a lot since that fateful day in March 2020, and one thing we know is that we'll continue dealing with COVID-19 for a long time. While we all wish we hadn't had a pandemic, SHL has become an even stronger public health laboratory for Iowans as a result of it.

Thanks to IDPH's support and the remarkable commitment of SHL's staff, we now know we are proven to have the capacity, resilience, and sustainability of a first-rate public health laboratory. This is something Iowans need and deserve.

Michael Pentella is director of the State Hygienic Laboratory.