MUSC Foundation to raise funds for COVID-19 testing during Giving Tuesday Now

CHARLESTON, S.C. (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.

Questions related to the testing process or roll-out or for other related matters, please contact Heather Woolwine, director, Office of Public Affairs and Media Relations, at woolwinh@musc.edu.

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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.

The Foundation is governed by a 31-member board of directors. The president of the Medical University is an ex-officio, non-voting member of the board. Three members of the MUSC Board of Trustees also serve on the board. The remaining 27 at-large directors are not directly affiliated with the university. Five are alumni of MUSC. The foundation’s funds are invested and managed by professional money managers selected by the foundation’s Investment Committee. This committee uses a professional investment advisor to assist in evaluating its managers.

 

About the Medical University of South Carolina

Founded in 1824 in Charleston, MUSC is the oldest medical school in the South as well as the state’s only integrated academic health sciences center with a unique charge to serve the state through education, research and patient care. Each year, MUSC educates and trains more than 3,000 students and nearly 800 residents in six colleges: Dental Medicine, Graduate Studies, Health Professions, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy. The state’s leader in obtaining biomedical research funds, in fiscal year 2019, MUSC set a new high, bringing in more than $284 million. For information on academic programs, visit musc.edu.

As the clinical health system of the Medical University of South Carolina, MUSC Health is dedicated to delivering the highest quality patient care available while training generations of competent, compassionate health care providers to serve the people of South Carolina and beyond. Comprising some 1,600 beds, more than 100 outreach sites, the MUSC College of Medicine, the physicians’ practice plan and nearly 275 telehealth locations, MUSC Health owns and operates eight hospitals situated in Charleston, Chester, Florence, Lancaster and Marion counties. In 2019, for the fifth consecutive year, U.S. News & World Report named MUSC Health the No. 1 hospital in South Carolina. To learn more about clinical patient services, visit muschealth.org.

MUSC and its affiliates have collective annual budgets of $3.2 billion. The more than 17,000 MUSC team members include world-class faculty, physicians, specialty providers and scientists who deliver groundbreaking education, research, technology and patient care.