The Home Sputum Collection Project

Upon consulting with a physician, patients experiencing symptoms of NTM lung disease may be prescribed a sputum test to be performed at the specialty laboratory at National Jewish Health. A home testing kit will be mailed by this lab to your address within 1-2 weeks. Once you are able to collect a quality sputum sample, please return it to the laboratory as soon as possible using the pre-paid overnight shipping label included in your kit to ensure viability.

You will be asked to complete this short survey. If you meet the criteria, you will receive a form via email to complete for the laboratory order. The qualifying criteria are summarized below:

• Licensed in the U.S.
• Located in any state in the U.S. with the exception of NY state (in light of specific testing regulations, this initial program does not include physicians or patients who reside in NY state)
• Has knowledge and experience with individuals suspected or confirmed to have NTM Lung Disease
• Agrees to refer patients who otherwise would not have access to a reference laboratory for NTM Lung Testing or patients who are reluctant to come to the clinic because of concerns related to COVID-19
• Agrees (to the best of your knowledge) to refer patients who understand and agree to the process of collecting sputum at home using the instructions provided in the kit
• Agrees to participate in two (2) anonymous surveys aimed at assessing the utility, impact and challenges of the program

All international senders need to be listed on National Jewish Health's CDC Permit. Once your prescribing physician is confirmed as a registrant under the NJH permit number, your physician can fill out the Home Sputum Project eligibility survey and you will be able to receive your sputum mailer kit.

Please share the website name or link with your physician. If they have additional questions, please ask them to call the COPD Foundation's Bronchiectasis and NTM Information Line at 1-833-411-LUNG (5864)

At this time, there is no limit to the number of patients/samples a prescriber can enroll/send for sputum testing. Because the Home Sputum Collection Project currently operates on a first come, first served basis, the pilot will conclude once all funding has been utilized.

Both patients who display symptoms of NTM lung disease as well as confirmed NTM patients are eligible to receive a prescription. The prescribing physician may exercise discretion in deciding which patients would likely benefit from a sputum culture.

This is a pilot program that is funded by the COPD Foundation through a generous partnership with Insmed. There is no cost to patients or prescribers who participate in the pilot.

After the provider has ordered the patient's kit, it will be mailed by the laboratory to the patient's address within 1-2 weeks. Once the patient has followed the instructions on the kit and sent their sample back using the pre-paid overnight label provided, the lab will process the specimen immediately and send the results back to the prescribing physician. Mycobacterial cultures test for special, slow-growing microbes that can take weeks or even months to grow (regular microbes like E. coli will grow in a day). Because of the extended duration of this growth process, it also takes extra time to determine which drugs the bacteria are susceptible to. Unlike routine testing however, the sample does not need to be sent to multiple laboratories to get a complete answer. The full-service lab at National Jewish Health performs all of these testing steps in one place, reducing the total time in transition and ensuring results get back to the physician and patient as soon as possible.

The lab at National Jewish Health sends out several updates to your provider on both positive and negative cultures throughout the sputum testing process. Please contact your provider for more information about the status of your sample.

Because this is a pilot program with a specified budget, only a limited number of patients will have access to the program. It is our hope that this pilot will demonstrate the utility of a national home sputum program.

No, the pilot program is not a research study. Home collection kits for mycobacteria are already in use and have helped many patients collect quality sputum samples from the comfort, safety, and convenience of their own homes. The COPD Foundation, National Jewish Health and NTM Info & Research developed this process improvement project together to expand our understanding of the barriers that may accompany the use of a home sputum kit as well as to determine the necessity and desire among patients and physicians to continue funding projects like this in the future.

This program aims to demonstrate that quality sputum collection can be done by the patient in their own home with instructional materials designed by top pulmonary specialists. The patient can then mail their own sample to a full-service mycobacteriology laboratory that is best equipped to identify various NTM subspecies and provide the most accurate results.

The full-service laboratory at National Jewish Health has special assays and expertise to accurately identify mycobacteria. They will identify organisms to the species (or even subspecies, if it is relevant) level instead of the complex level to make sure providers can see exactly what their patients are infected with, or if they have new infections. They will also perform susceptibility testing to assist providers with selecting the most clinically useful antibiotics. Where possible, the lab at NJH will conduct genetic testing on mycobacteria to further expedite the process of selecting the most effective drug for a particular patient’s infection.