Concordance partners with NW Ohio company to provide testing swabs

Concordance Healthcare Solutions has formed a partnership with FormLabs Ohio, in Millbury, to produce and distribute COVID-19 testing swabs. Concordance's CFO, Todd Howell, helped cement the collaboration with his twin brother, Tony, who works for FormLabs Ohio, a release from Concordance Healthcare Solutions states. FormLabs has produced 3-D-printed items for the auto, jewelry and medical industries among others, and has now shifted some of their resources toward creating nasal swabs for COVID-19 testing. "Most of the testing for the coronavirus involves the use of a nasal swab stick to take a culture," Todd Howell said. "That culture is then used to determine whether or not a patient has been affected by COVID-19. "These items are in high demand right now," he said. The swabs are printed, counted and, prior to shipment, packaged in sterilization pouches provided by Concordance, the release states. "These pouches allow the hospitals to run the product through their autoclave or sterilization process so that the swabs come out sterile, safe and ready to use," Howell said. "We are taking FormLab's innovative product through our extensive distribution network, which includes twenty distribution centers coast to coast," he said. "We will be able to move this vital product throughout the entire U.S." Concordance delivered the first 15,000 swab order from FormLabs to the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus Friday as part of a joint project with the Ohio Department of Health to produce coronavirus test kits, the release states. The target is to produce and deliver enough swabs for 200,000 test kits to be shared with hospitals in Ohio so that more people can be tested by the end of April, as announced by Gov. Mike DeWine in a press conference last week. Along with the nasal swabs, the test kits also would contain other components needed to run proper testing, the release states. The swabs could be used at hospitals, clinics and drive-through sites, it states. "We are proud of what our employees do every day to support the healthcare facilities in this country," Howell said. "To be a part of this innovative solution gives us the ability to positively impact the lives of even more people throughout our communities — and that is really something to be proud of."