The coronavirus test being provided daily to tens of thousands of residents in Los Angeles and other parts of California may be producing inaccurate results, according to a warning from federal officials that could raise questions about the accuracy of infection data shaping the pandemic response. The guidance from the Food and Drug Administration warns healthcare providers and patients that the test made by Curative, a year-old Silicon Valley start-up that supplies the oral-swab tests at L.A.'s 10 drive-through testing sites, carries a "risk of false results, particularly false negative results." To reduce the risk of false negatives, the Curative test should be used only on "symptomatic individuals within 14 days of COVID-19 symptom onset," and the swab should be observed and directed by a healthcare worker, the FDA said. The guidance, issued Monday, repeats the instructions that the FDA issued when the test was first granted an emergency-use authorization. The FDA warning appears to sharply contradict Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who in April made coronavirus testing available to anyone, regardless of symptoms.

Financially strapped airlines are pushing an idea intended to breathe new life into the travel industry: coronavirus tests that passengers can take before boarding a flight. Several airlines, including United, American, Hawaiian, JetBlue and Alaska, have announced plans to begin offering testing -- either kits mailed to a passenger's home or rapid tests taken at or near airports -- that would allow travelers to enter specific states and countries without having to quarantine. The tests will cost fliers $90 to $250, depending on the airline and the type of test. At Los Angeles International Airport, a design company has announced plans to convert cargo containers into a coronavirus testing facility with an on-site lab that can produce results in about two hours. On Thursday, Tampa International Airport began offering testing to all arriving and departing passengers on a walk-in basis. It's an idea that has gone global, with a trade group for the world's airlines calling on governments to create a testing standard for airline passengers as a way to fight the COVID-19 pandemic instead of using travel restrictions and mandatory quarantines.

New coronavirus tests are being developed every day. The Trump administration just ordered 150 million rapid antigen tests from Abbott Laboratories, but how do they stack up against other tests like the Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test? Top infectious disease doctors from Harvard and Johns Hopkins break down the differences between the two tests to determine which diagnostic tool might be better at curbing transmission rates. Rapid antigen tests could play a pivotal role in curbing the spread of the coronavirus, according to some of the country's top medical professionals. Antigen tests are the type of tests the White House just ordered from Abbott Laboratories in a $750 million deal that will reportedly buy 150 million of its new rapid coronavirus tests: the BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card.

The UK's new Space Agency funding will be used to support drones that deliver coronavirus testing kits to a Scottish island. Skyports, the company behind the drones, started a two-week trial in May with NHS Highland, which serves a group of islands off the west coast of Scotland. The technology was able to cut delivery times between Oban and the Isle of Mull to around 15 minutes, instead of going via road and taking a 45-minute ferry crossing. An initial £2.6 million was made available by the UK Space Agency and European Space Agency (ESA) to find and support space-enabled technologies and services that can support the NHS response to coronavirus. Skyports along with two other initiatives have been awarded a share of £1.1 million in funding, while the rest is open to bids until the end of September.

This article was first published on Friday, May 22, 2020 in Kaiser Health News. Dr. Albert Hsiao and his colleagues at the University of California-San Diego health system had been working for 18 months on an artificial intelligence program designed to help doctors identify pneumonia on a chest X-ray. When the coronavirus hit the United States, they decided to see what it could do. The researchers quickly deployed the application, which dots X-ray images with spots of color where there may be lung damage or other signs of pneumonia. It has now been applied to more than 6,000 chest X-rays, and it's providing some value in diagnosis, said Hsiao, the director of UCSD's augmented imaging and artificial intelligence data analytics laboratory.

Dr Albert Hsiao and his colleagues at the UC San Diego health system in the United States had been working for 18 months on an artificial intelligence (AI) program designed to help doctors identify pneumonia on a chest X-ray. When the coronavirus hit the United States, they decided to see what it could do. The researchers quickly deployed their program, which dots X-ray images with spots of colour where there may be lung damage or other signs of pneumonia. It has now been applied to more than 6,000 chest X-rays, and it's providing some value in diagnosis, said Dr Hsiao, the director of UCSD's augmented imaging and artificial intelligence data analytics laboratory. His team is one of several around the country that has pushed AI programs into the Covid-19 crisis to perform tasks like deciding which patients face the greatest risk of complications and which can be safely channeled into lower-intensity care.

Dr. Albert Hsiao and his colleagues at the University of California-San Diego health system had been working for 18 months on an artificial intelligence program designed to help doctors identify pneumonia on a chest X-ray. When the coronavirus hit the United States, they decided to see what it could do. His team is one of several around the country that has pushed AI programs developed in a calmer time into the COVID-19 crisis to perform tasks like deciding which patients face the greatest risk of complications and which can be safely channeled into lower-intensity care. The machine-learning programs scroll through millions of pieces of data to detect patterns that may be hard for clinicians to discern. Yet few of the algorithms have been rigorously tested against standard procedures.

Dr. Albert Hsiao and his colleagues at the University of California–San Diego health system had been working for 18 months on an artificial intelligence program designed to help doctors identify pneumonia on a chest X-ray. When the coronavirus hit the United States, they decided to see what it could do. The researchers quickly deployed the application, which dots X-ray images with spots of color where there may be lung damage or other signs of pneumonia. It has now been applied to more than 6,000 chest X-rays, and it's providing some value in diagnosis, said Hsiao, the director of UCSD's augmented imaging and artificial intelligence data analytics laboratory. His team is one of several around the country that has pushed AI programs developed in a calmer time into the COVID-19 crisis to perform tasks like deciding which patients face the greatest risk of complications and which can be safely channeled into lower-intensity care.

Albert Hsiao, M.D., and his colleagues at the University of California, San Diego (USCD) health system had been working for 18 months on an artificial intelligence program designed to help doctors identify pneumonia on a chest X-ray. When the coronavirus hit the U.S., they decided to see what it could do. The researchers quickly deployed the application, which dots X-ray images with spots of color where there may be lung damage or other signs of pneumonia. It has now been applied to more than 6,000 chest X-rays, and it's providing some value in diagnosis, said Hsiao, director of UCSD's augmented imaging and artificial intelligence data analytics laboratory. His team is one of several around the country that has pushed AI programs developed in a calmer time into the COVID-19 crisis to perform tasks like deciding which patients face the greatest risk of complications and which can be safely channeled into lower-intensity care.

Albert Hsiao, M.D., Ph.D., and his colleagues at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) health system had been working for 18 months on an artificial intelligence program designed to help doctors identify pneumonia on a chest X-ray. When the coronavirus hit the U.S., they decided to see what it could do. The researchers quickly deployed the application, which dots X-ray images with spots of color where there may be lung damage or other signs of pneumonia. It has now been applied to more than 6,000 chest X-rays, and it's providing some value in diagnosis, said Hsiao, director of UCSD's augmented imaging and artificial intelligence data analytics laboratory. His team is one of several around the country that has pushed AI programs developed in a calmer time into the COVID-19 crisis to perform tasks like deciding which patients face the greatest risk of complications and which can be safely channeled into lower-intensity care.