Company insight
The future is in vitro diagnostics
Doris-Ann Williams, CEO of the British In Vitro Diagnostics Association (BIVDA), describes the continuing importance of in vitro diagnostics (IVDs), particularly in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic highlighted the necessity of IVD, and how significant the fall in take-up of non-Covid tests has been. BIVDA also recommends furthering the integration of IVDs into the practice of UK healthcare, suggesting that the latter’s improvement will help drive the health of the population, and also provide economic opportunities for export abroad in the post-Brexit reality.
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he last year has seen in vitro diagnostics (IVDs) front and centre of the political debate. A mass- testing programme for Covid-19 was developed from scratch over a very short period of time, a system that continues to support the vaccine roll-out, with hundreds of thousands of tests performed every day. The pandemic has raised new awareness of the importance of the IVD sector and a need for the ability to respond and expand rapidly in this kind of crisis. As we look forward to the coming months, this flexibility and agility is not just about Covid-19, but the future resilience and recovery of the health service.
normality and clear the huge backlog of cases that are building up the longer people stay away from hospitals. Our conversations indicate a 70% fall in take-up for its range of non-Covid tests, meaning thousands of people are going about their lives with undiagnosed illnesses – conditions such as cancer, STIs and hepatitis.
Testing campaign As such, the British In Vitro Diagnostics Association (BIVDA) is working with its members and sector colleagues on a campaign to encourage patients to take their routine tests, while campaigning for policies to make these decisions
“Recognising the valuable place of diagnostics in the UK’s health landscape will allow the government and NHS to ensure the advances and lessons learned in life sciences during this pandemic are built upon in the future, leaving us better prepared for future challenges.”
Given the backlog of illnesses requiring identification by the NHS, a continued focus on enhanced diagnostics will help identify conditions earlier and help get people into treatment more quickly, improving outcomes. So yes, we need to see access to Covid testing supplies reinforced, and the ability to scale up this capacity again at speed, but we also need to see spare lab capacity and NHS staff capability being sweated to ensure as many tests for different illnesses are being done as possible – that is, if the NHS is going to get back to some sort of
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easier for those who are still nervous about going into hospital settings. The new health and care white paper – ‘Integration and innovation: Working together to improve health and social care for all’ – with its emphasis on integration, should encourage greater use of IVD equipment in primary care settings, including GP surgeries and pharmacies. This would bring services closer to the patient, without requiring them to travel to hospital and potentially leading to faster results – and faster diagnosis as well.
Despite their obvious benefits to improved patient outcomes, IVDs continue to face a glass ceiling when it comes to the uptake and diffusion of new tests and technology across the health service. In fact, uptake of new IVDs within the NHS typically takes about ten years. Earlier diagnosis through IVDs has the potential to reduce pressure on the NHS by freeing up capacity for more complex cases – patients can spend a few hours in a hospital rather than being admitted for an overnight stay – or potentially even avoid hospitals altogether through better use of near-patient testing.
Opportunities abound A thriving and well-supported IVD sector will be vital to both the economic and physical health of the UK over the coming months and years as we look to take advantage of new export opportunities abroad and technological advances at home. The necessary recovery of the NHS and the associated increased awareness of IVDs offers a real opportunity to turn the focus of policy on to an area of research, manufacturing and medical innovation that has traditionally not received the government support it enjoys in other European countries. Recognising the valuable place of diagnostics in the UK’s health landscape will allow the government and NHS to ensure the advances and lessons learned in life sciences during this pandemic are built upon in the future, leaving us better prepared for future challenges. ●
www.bivda.org.uk Practical Patient Care /
www.practical-patient-care.com
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