Alumnus Physician/CEO Helps Kansas City through COVID-19 Crisis

“A small biotech company, based in Kansas City, is making a major contribution to local hospitals and healthcare workers during the coronavirus pandemic,” begins a recent Fox 4 news report. “MAWD Pathology Group is redirecting its resources to ramp up the production of testing kits for COVID-19.”

The physician and executive responsible for this act of public service is Dr. Samuel Caughron (’96), MAWD’s president and CEO. “What we saw is, in our hospitals, these patients who were being admitted, who were coming in for care, as well as the healthcare workers in the hospitals, needed a quicker turnaround time,” Dr. Caughron told reporters at KCTV News 5. So he and his team began offering expedited testing for those who are ill. “We had the equipment, we had the expertise,” Dr. Caughron said to Fox 4. “We decided we could help out by making that testing available to those hospitals.”

Whereas testing with standard kits takes days to yield results, MAWD can deliver them in hours, accelerating diagnoses and sparing hospitals the need to waste scarce personal-protective equipment (PPE) on patients who are not, in fact, infected. “The huge benefit is the resources,” says Dr. Caughron. “We can save the PPE for the patients who do indeed have the disease, and we can take care of them.”

Thanks be to God! Please continue to pray for Dr. Caughron, for his good work, and for all who are afflicted by COVID-19.