Building trustful partnership in In Vitro Diagnostics
Medical care has been undergoing tremendous advances in the Middle East, not least in diagnostic testing. Roche Diagnostics Middle East (RDME) is a pioneer in leading this development in in vitro diagnostics (IVD), by supporting laboratories to achieve a higher level of performance, efficiency and sustainability. IVD testing directs over 60% of clinical decision-making and accounts for a small fraction of global healthcare spending. Whether it is in oncology, virology, blood screening, or research on infectious diseases, autoimmunity, inflammation, women’s health or metabolism, RDME has supported a large number of leading and prominent healthcare institutions to move from multiple analyzers and workflows to comprehensive, integrated laboratory solutions, meeting international standards and certifications.
Roche, with its unique privilege of having both pharmaceutical and diagnostics research under one roof, aims to improve healthcare and make a difference in patients’ lives. The medical solutions start from the stages of early detection and prevention of disease, to diagnosis, treatment selection and treatment monitoring. Roche Diagnostics is leading the industry by addressing unmet medical needs with new or medically enhanced diagnostic tests, supporting doctors and patients with an improved information basis for better medical decisions and treatment selection. Roche’s IVD test menu is one of the broadest in the industry and is continually being expanded based on the latest scientific advances.
Pioneering in Personalized Healthcare
Personalized Healthcare systematically uses patient characteristics, disease biology and diagnostic tests to tailor medicines to patients and improve disease management. Cooperating in the early development of new drugs is integral for the implementation of Personalized Medicine. Roche Diagnostics supports throughout the patient care chain, from screening, early detection, diagnosis and classification to therapy monitoring. Roche Diagnostic’s breakthrough HPV DNA test truly shows how Personalized Medicine works in practice, as it has offered clinicians the ability to detect the presence of specific HPV genotypes. Notably, having such a targeted test has enabled clinicians to choose the most appropriate treatment for their patients, rather than treating every HPV-infected individual with equal and aggressive therapy. This development has also given more confidence to patients, who are re-assured that the treatment they receive is tailored to their specific needs.
Leading in optimizing performance
Optimizing performance, automation and information technology are simplified with a common architecture that delivers tailor-made solutions for diverse workloads and testing requirements. Roche Diagnostics offers platforms that are designed to reduce the complexity of laboratory operation and provide efficient and compatible solutions for network cooperation. For example, Roche Diagnostics has developed medical diagnostic tests based on the Nobel prize-winning polymerase chain reaction (PCR; which exponentially amplifies small amounts of target DNA), that would otherwise be too time-consuming or impossible to perform.
Providing superior workflow solutions, including blood screening
Superior workflow solutions such as Task Targeted Automation (TTA) and Total Lab Automation (TLA) are designed to meet the needs of today’s fast developing healthcare systems. In RDME, a regional project management team is an added value to customers by providing consultancy and implementation support. TLA is customized to the specific needs of individual customers and, thanks to the modular system landscape, can be configured in 90 layouts, differing in size and shape. Roche Diagnostics is successfully delivering best in class Total Lab Solutions for Pathology and Cytology Laboratories to substantially improve the workflow with a unique and complete solution. Another example of superior workflow solutions and automation is with blood screening. Roche Diagnostics has been the preferred partner in the Blood Bank Industry by safeguarding patients through industry-leading assays and technologies. Besides offering Nucleic Acid Testing (NAT), Roche Diagnostics launched Roche Blood Safety Solutions (RBSS), which introduced serology testing of blood samples in an automated manner. As such, Roche Diagnostics is the only provider of a complete Blood Safety Solution to blood banks of any size. Fully integrated automation is offered; these standardized processes reduce manual steps, which guarantees the safety of the blood supply and offers state-of-the-art assay sensitivity and genotype coverage.
Improving therapeutic monitoring
Roche’s IVD offering can be used for treatment selection, response prediction and therapeutic monitoring once a condition has been identified. One of the best examples of this is in hepatitis, qualitative immunoassays (e.g. surface antigen; HBsAg II assay) screen for the presence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) skin, while other assays verify the existence of viral antigens or antibodies. The viral load, the amount of virus in the body, can be determined by quantitative tests. This test shows if therapy has effectively controlled the virus and whether it is replicating or not allowing doctors to monitor the stage and progression of the disease. The continual innovation in therapeutic monitoring is demonstrated in hepatitis C, where Roche Diagnostics has developed Elecsys anti-HCV II, a new state of the art diagnostic test that has an increased seroconversion sensitivity compared to other assays.
Enhancing centralization of data
Similarly, Roche offers centralization of data which is achieved with rapid and easy-to-operate systems that facilitate immediate healthcare decisions, thus placing an emphasis on patient-oriented diagnosis. One example of such a system is the Cobas IT 1000, a point-of-care IT solution that provides complete remote management of and access to all point-of-care diagnostic systems from just one hospital workstation. This automation and centralization of data management into just one workstation frees staff time and enhances the diagnostic service offered to patients.
Roche Diagnostics’ ongoing commitment to developing new analytical tools greatly benefits patients, and its technological innovations create a big impact on the healthcare development in the Middle East. As well as the analytical and technological advances described above, RDME has worked hard to establish the relevant infrastructure in the Middle East with a logistics hub, continual training for employees and a customer support center. These factors combined make RDME the leader in IVD and allow healthcare professionals to benefit from reliable, accurate and immediate results, which directly impact their diagnoses. RDME provides the deepest industry know-how and aims to become the region’s trusted IVD partner.
