BLOG: Quidel saves the world: Why you could not get InflammaDry
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Doctor: “We need to start doing InflammaDry on our dry eye disease patients again. I haven’t seen an ID in weeks. When did we quit using it?”
Tech: “We didn’t. Quidel stopped shipping it to us.”
Doctor: “Any explanation?”
Tech: “I dunno. Something about saving the world.”
I admit that I’m a little slower on the draw than I was once upon a time. It took me about 4 weeks to realize that my dry eye visits only had tear osmolarity units on the chart. Usually, our protocols called for about 50% of visits to include InflammaDry testing for MMP-9 activity so that I could make a more informed decision about the need for anti-inflammatory medications. Our SkyVision treatment matrix calls for a greater degree of aggression when we are treating symptomatic patients who have clinical signs of inflammation accompanied by a positive test.
Being the curious sort, I reached out to a long-time industry friend who works for Quidel and asked them what gives. Well, it turns out that Quidel really has been sorta, kinda saving the world. It produces thousands of COVID-19 rapid tests using the same QuickVue technology used for InflammaDry. In the third quarter of 2021 alone, Quidel produced and shipped more than 45 million tests, more than twice as many as in the same period in 2020. Quidel simply ran out of the common ingredients used to make both COVID tests and InflammaDry.
Instead of stamping out dry eye, Quidel chose to save the world.
Not gonna lie, when I reached out, I was all set to light up my buddy and his employer for messing up my DED protocol, but I just didn’t have the heart. By providing a rapid response test for COVID-19, Quidel executed a rapid pivot that has paid dividends for society. This is a good news kind of story, one that all of us in eye care can applaud. Maybe we had to fall back on a bit of old school diagnostic acumen, but we all have a slit lamp or two on hand to make those calls. InflammaDry returned to our lanes last week, and we are now back to normal.
Join me in tipping my hat and offering a “good on ya” to Quidel.
*Several years ago, I was a consultant for Quidel, but I am not now and have not been one for quite some time.
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