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IU Health utilizing virtual screening for novel coronavirus

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INDIANAPOLIS — A concern for many Hoosiers, even if they don't have underlying health issues, is how to figure out if they have the novel coronavirus.

Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly Company is partnering with the state to expand testing and IU Health has one tool to help in the evaluation process.

"If it's severe enough, then we help facilitate getting them to the appropriate facility to be evaluated further, have their vital signs taken and have somebody listen to their lungs to see if testing is necessary," Lindsey Kocher, physician assistant with IU Health, said.

That's how IU Health's virtual screening works. It's a free resource to help out Hoosiers who think they may have COVID-19.

Kocher said the screening process is constantly being updated as healthcare workers learn more.

"We have infection prevention and physicians and specialists in infectious disease who are always reviewing that," Kocher said.

The service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week through an app. You can find a link here.

Once you get in and create an account, the first thing you'll see is the coronavirus screen. You click on that and then you can scroll through and see all the nurses who are online, clicking on whoever you'd like to screen you.

"If you've got some wait times, we've had a lot of people calling obviously and we're working through them as fast as we can, sometimes calling in a different time of the day might be helpful as well," Kocher said.

Under the partnership with the state, Eli Lilly is not accepting money for conducting and analyzing coronavirus tests. The company is also working on a drive-thru testing like other states have set up, but it's too early to say when that system will be up and running.