- Rhinomed has created the world’s first nasal swab designed specifically for children — The Rhinoswab Junior™
- Ethics approval has been received for a clinical trial to commence with the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) at The Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne
- Trial seeks to further validate the child-friendly Rhinoswab Junior™ as a safe and effective alternative to current standard of care swabs
Rhinomed has completed development of the world’s first nasal swab designed specifically for children.
The Rhinoswab Junior has been designed to deliver all the benefits of the existing Rhinoswab but with several novel features that reduce the fear, anxiety and trauma associated with the use of existing standard of care nasal swabs.
The company has received Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) approval to commence a clinical trial of the Rhinoswab Junior at The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne.
The trial, known as The Diagnosis of Respiratory Disease in Children with Rhinoswab Study (DIY Rhinoswab Study), will investigate the diagnosis of respiratory viruses in children with Rhinoswab Junior, which is designed to collect a nasal sample from children without the discomfort and distress often associated with the combined throat and deep nasal (CTDN) swabs.
Rhinoswab Junior is a smaller version of the Rhinoswab device with child friendly features to engage children in the sampling process. Rhinoswab’s design also allows for standardisation of the site of biological sampling, as compared with CTDN swabs, which are operator dependent. Specifically, the diagnostic validation study will evaluate the Rhinoswab, a self-collection anterior nasal swab, as an alternative method to combined throat and deep nasal (CTDN) swab for respiratory sample collection in children aged 4-18 years at The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH).
The objectives of the study are to investigate:
- The laboratory test performance of the Rhinoswab compared with the current standard of care CTDN swab
- The comfort and preference of Rhinoswab compared to the CTDN swab
- If laboratory handling of Rhinoswab is equivalent to the CTDN swab.
The study will aim to recruit 250 children at the Respiratory Infection Clinic at the RCH for a SARS-CoV-2 test. The CTDN sample will be collected by a healthcare worker (HCW); however, children will self collect the Rhinoswab sample under the supervision of a healthcare worker.
The study will also recruit up to 10 staff to evaluate Rhinoswab against laboratory handling, process and workflow requirements.