COVER STORY / ADVERTISING FEATURE


Transforming infection diagnosis: 20-minute bacterial vs. viral test


Beckman Coulter Diagnostics’ Access MeMed BV assay, a test that helps clinicians differentiate between bacterial and viral infections, is now approved under the IVDR.


Beckman Coulter has partnered with MeMed, a leader in advanced host- response technologies, to bring the MeMed BV test into core laboratory setings. MeMed’s mission is to transform patient care by interpreting immune system signals and translating host-response data into clinical insights to support clinicians’ decision-making.


PP June 2026


Volume 27 Issue 4


www.pathologyinpractice.com pp cover Jun26.indd 1


Practical statistics: hypothesis testing – t-tests, ANOVA, and others


Changes in global disease patterns: the challenge for microbiologists


Rapid differentiation of bacterial vs. viral infections with Access MeMed BV


28/05/2026 14:50 Clinicians have published that use


of the MeMed BV test has resulted in improved clinical decision-making, helped them to reduce unnecessary antibiotic use, and supported antimicrobial stewardship efforts. Validated for use across Beckman


Coulter’s installed base of DxI 9000 and Access 2 immunoassay analysers,


the Access MeMed BV assay enables fast, reliable infection differentiation while leveraging laboratories’ existing infrastructure and workflows.


Confident clinical decisions Bacterial and viral infections often present with similar symptoms, making early differentiation challenging and increasing the risk of inappropriate patient management or unnecessary antibiotic use. Timely distinction is essential, as treatment decisions are frequently made before traditional diagnostic methods – which can take hours or days – provide definitive results. Traditional diagnostic approaches


typically focus on direct pathogen detection, but this can be slow, unreliable, or inconclusive. These limitations may delay clinical decisions, contribute to antibiotic misuse, and compromise effective infection management. Conventional tests are often


insufficient: Inaccessible infection sites Often no pathogens are detected False alarms due to colonisation Prolonged time to results Poor performance for emerging pathogens.


How does it work? Direct from a serum or plasma sample, MeMed BV computationally integrates the levels of three host immune proteins (CRP, IP-10, and TRAIL) into a simple score indicating the likelihood of a bacterial immune response or co- infection versus a likely viral immune response (or other non-bacterial aetiology). Powered by machine learning and these


three host-response biomarkers – TRAIL, IP-10, and CRP – a powerful algorithm turns host protein levels into one easy-to- read score; helping clinicians act fast, with confidence and precision.


Conventional tests focus on direct pathogen detection and have limitations. 6 WWW.PATHOLOGYINPRACTICE.COM June 2026


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