The Global Challenge of Diagnostics for Infectious Diseases

In 2021, The Lancet Commission on Diagnostics highlighted, “Diagnostics are central to an accurate diagnosis of communicable and non-communicable diseases, to guide therapy, monitor progress, and assess response to treatment.”

The scarcity of high-quality diagnostics has real-life serious and even deadly outcomes, especially in low- and middle- income countries with a larger proportion of poor and rural populations. Without access to diagnostic tests, healthcare providers rely on syndromic diagnosis leading to misdiagnoses and unnecessary use of antimicrobials. Although donations of diagnostic equipment have been made in an effort to increase access to diagnostics, they are often done without consideration to the existing infrastructure and staffing restraints. The past decade has brought forth expansion of diagnostic innovation especially with point-of-care (POC) testing, enabling patient autonomy.

Meeting the Challenge

We advance innovative diagnostics for infectious diseases at every stage of the development pipeline. Our services are geared towards targeting innovative and emerging technologies and diagnostics of STIs and emerging infections. We utilize our extensive network and expertise to help accelerate the development of POC testing and to define the unmet need in POC diagnostics for infectious diseases in resource limited settings.

Scientific Innovation

Proof of
Concept

Optimization Feasibility

Prototype Development

Clinical
Testing

Impactful
Use

We identify

…promising emerging technologies, particularly those that are affordable and useful in resource-limited settings. We also provide funding opportunities for yearly solicitations.

We validate

…promising technologies through early, in-house clinical evaluations utilizing decades of clinical experience including access to our biorepository.

We provide

…consultations and feedback to developers and further funding for development of select technology that has achieved proof of concept.

We offer

…systems engineering assistance, including defining and documenting product requirements; and helping developers make sense of costs, schedules, and social considerations along with in-house benchtop evaluations.

We conduct

…numerous clinical trials in a variety of settings such as low resource settings, an adolescent health clinic, and an emergency department.

We convene

…clinical review committees with technology developers, clinicians, other medical professionals, end users, and other stakeholders to advance the field of point-of-care (POC) testing and to define the unmet need in POC diagnostics for infectious diseases.