Pharm Exec: Bridging the Precision Gap: Accelerating Clinical Adoption of Companion Diagnostics in Oncology
Bridging the Precision Gap: Accelerating Clinical Adoption of Companion Diagnostics in Oncology
Diagnostics are the most important tools that empower the health workforce in the identification of diseases or health conditions. They allow the initiation of treatments in order to avoid further complications and costly treatments for patients.
To address the lack of access to tests and testing services in multiple countries, WHO since 2018 has published a yearly essential diagnostics list (EDL), a basket of recommended in vitro diagnostics that should be available at point-of-care and in laboratories in all countries to increase timely and life-saving diagnoses. The latest edition, published today, includes WHO-recommended COVID-19 ...
Diagnostics are medical devices that provide information about diseases, physiological status, or health conditions in medicine and public health, with any of the following test purposes: screening, detection, prevention, surveillance, diagnosis or aid to diagnosis, monitoring, prediction, investigation, prognosis, or staging.
In vitro diagnostics (IVDs) are tests that can detect disease, conditions and infections. In vitro simply means ‘in glass’, meaning these tests are typically conducted in test tubes and similar equipment, as opposed to in vivo tests, which are conducted in the body itself.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has released its 2023 Essential Diagnostics List (EDL), which is an evidence-based register of in vitro diagnostics (IVD) that supports countries to make national diagnostic choices.
The GDC is a WHO-managed informal network convening diverse stakeholders to strengthen diagnostics capacity and support coordinated action across health systems. It also contributes to advancing other relevant World Health Assembly resolutions and global health priorities related to diagnostics across diseases and health conditions towards universal health coverage and emergency preparedness ...