Oh, what a time to be alive! In the groundbreaking world of medical research, where every second counts, especially if you’re gasping for breath with a lower respiratory tract infection, some bright minds at Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen, Norway, decided to play a little game of “Let’s Speed Things Up.” The game’s name? “Rapid Testing for Community-Acquired Pneumonia: A Race Against Time.” Sounds thrilling, doesn’t it?

Here’s the scoop: from September 25, 2020, to June 21, 2022, these intrepid researchers gathered 374 unsuspecting souls (221 of whom were proud owners of a Y chromosome) with an average age hovering around the “get off my lawn” stage of life. They split them into two teams: Team Rapid Test (the cool kids with access to the shiny BioFire FilmArray Pneumonia plus Panel) and Team Standard Care (the ones sticking to the good ol’ ways of microbiological diagnostics).

The goal? To see if Team Rapid Test could not only figure out what was causing the patients’ pneumonia faster but also start treating it with the accuracy of a sniper. And guess what? They did! A whopping 35.3% of Team Rapid Test received treatment that was actually aimed at what was ailing them, compared to a measly 13.4% of Team Standard Care. And they did it all 9.4 hours faster. Because, you know, when you’re struggling to breathe, every hour counts.

So, what have we learned from this modern-day fable? That in the high-stakes world of pneumonia treatment, faster and more accurate is better. Who would’ve thought? And all it took was some fancy PCR testing to make it happen. Bravo, science, bravo. Now, if only we could apply this level of efficiency to every aspect of healthcare (and maybe a few other areas of life), we’d really be onto something.

For those keeping score at home, this little experiment was officially stamped with approval by the powers that be at ClinicalTrials.gov (Identifier: NCT04660084), just in case you thought this was all just a fun made-up story.