Paul Bourbeau, PhD

Biography

Paul Bourbeau, PhD

Dr. Paul Bourbeau is director of the Microbiology Laboratories for the Geisinger Health System in Danville, PA. A past chairman of the clinical microbiology division of the American Society for Microbiology, Dr. Bourbeau is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Clinical Microbiology and a frequent reviewer for other microbiology journals. His research interests include microbial specimen transport, blood cultures, and rapid detection of infectious diseases.

ESwab: The Opening of a New Frontier for Microbial Collection, Transport and Detection

Microbial specimen collection and transport performed with swab collection devices have utilized wound fiber swabs for over 100 years. Indeed, the late 1960's marked the introduction of the first commercially produced swab collection device, and the basic design features of these products have changed little in the intervening years. The physical structure of wound swabs results in a product that releases only a small portion of the patient specimen for transfer to liquid or solid culture media. Flocked nylon swabs, on the other hand, are designed for both easy absorption and easy release of specimen, releasing 75-85% of specimen. This release capacity of flocked swabs significantly changes the dynamic of specimen transport and processing. Rather than being associated with the swab, the specimen is now primarily associated with the liquid transport media. Specimen inoculation can now be performed from the liquid transport, offering the possibility for automated inoculation of specimens and "quantitative transfer". Similarly, for molecular assays such as the BD GeneOhm MRSA assay, testing will need to be performed on the transport media rather than the swab, with preliminary results suggesting that this can be effectively accomplished. Validation of the performance of flocked swabs following the guidelines of CLSI M40 will also require modification of that standard to include testing of the liquid transport, rather than the swab. Lastly, the ability to modify the shape of the flocked swab ("designer swabs") offers the potential to increase test performance characteristics.