MUSC Foundation to raise funds for COVID-19 testing during Giving Tuesday Now
April 29, 2020
The Medical University of South Carolina Foundation will reach out to the community to help raise money for coronavirus-related testing on Giving Tuesday Now, scheduled for May 5.
Funds raised on that day will help pay for two kinds of testing – one to determine the presence of the disease and another to detect the presence of antibodies, indicating that the tested individual has recovered. This will be important as the university strives to help the community and businesses understand the prevalence of infection, identify new cases of COVID-19 more quickly and understand an individual’s risk profile.
“Together, these two tests are important to get our economy back on track,” said MUSC Health CEO Patrick J. Cawley, M.D. “In the short term, they will help us protect and rebuild our workforce in health care and in other sectors. In the longer term, they will enable us to understand the virus’ true prevalence, which in turn will help us navigate any outbreaks that might occur in the future.
MUSC Health currently is capable of performing about 900 disease tests a day, up dramatically from four weeks ago. Thanks to philanthropic funds that were used to purchase a state-of-the-art piece of testing equipment, that capacity will be doubled.
This week, antibody testing began at MUSC Health for frontline health care providers, to be followed by at-risk patients and first responders. Its long-term goal is to make this testing available to the general community as funding becomes available. MUSC has dedicated $500,000 of its own funds to the effort.
Money raised on Giving Tuesday Now will help pay for both tests, plus delivery systems to reach people in rural areas and other underserved communities.
Donations to the MUSC Covid-19 Testing Fund can be made online at give.musc.edu/Tuesday or by phone at 843-792-2678. Thank you for changing what’s possible during this unprecedented health crisis.
About the MUSC Foundation
The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) Foundation was chartered in 1966 as a charitable educational foundation to support the education, research, patient care and other programs at the Medical University. The foundation is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization, contributions to which are tax-deductible.
Since its beginning, the MUSC Foundation has encouraged such worthwhile academic enterprises as endowed professorships; scholarships; the acquisition and development of campus facilities to serve student, teaching, research or clinical needs; and awards in honor of academic excellence. In addition, it has encouraged achievements in biomedical research.
