Cue Health Inc., a healthcare technology company, and the National Basketball Association (NBA) have announced that Cue will serve as the league’s Official Home and Point of Care Test for the 2021-22 NBA season. The Cue COVID-19 Test for Home and Over The Counter (OTC) Use is an FDA-authorized molecular diagnostic test for at-home and over-the-counter use without physician supervision or a prescription.

Expanding on a relationship that began during the 2020 NBA Restart in Orlando, Cue will provide all 30 NBA teams and the league’s referees with the integrated Cue platform, which features both the portable Cue Health Monitoring System and easy-to-use Cue COVID-19 tests for use during the 2021-22 NBA season.    

“The NBA has been at the forefront of health and safety from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and we are proud to expand our relationship to become the league’s Official Home and Point of Care Test,” says Ayub Khattak, co-founder and CEO of Cue. “Since the NBA returned to the court last year, we have worked closely with them to make our fast and accurate testing available anywhere, anytime to prioritize players’ health while enabling more effective decision-making throughout the league.  For the coming season, we’re honored to have the privilege of helping keep players, coaches, staff, referees, and their families healthy.”

Cue’s platform is a molecular diagnostic system that delivers results directly to mobile smart devices—both Android and iOS—in about 20 minutes. The Cue Health Enterprise Dashboard allows for test results to be shared among players, teams, doctors, and the league through a secure, web-based application.

“After exploring a number of different at-home and point of care COVID-19 testing options for the upcoming season, we selected Cue thanks to its combination of accuracy, information management, ease of use, and speed,” says David Weiss, NBA senior vice president, Player Matters. “The health and safety of our players, coaches, staff and referees continue to be at the forefront of all of our decision-making, and we’re thrilled to be able to employ the Cue platform as a part of our Health & Safety Protocols for the 2021-22 season.”  

After collaborating during the 2020 NBA Restart in Orlando, the NBA began distributing the Cue Health Monitoring System and Cue COVID-19 tests to support regular testing of members of the NBA community at home and while traveling during the latter part of the 2020-21 NBA season, following Cue Health’s receipt of FDA emergency use authorization (EUA) for home and over-the-counter use.  Results of this home-testing program are expected to be published in a scientific journal later this year, according to the company.  Cue previously received EUA from the FDA in June of 2020 for its Cue COVID-19 Test for use in clinical and point-of-care settings.