Radisens Diagnostics in Cork is working on a breakthrough diagnostic device to test for any chronic disease, that can be used in the doctor’s office, pharmacy or outpatients clinic.
Currently, about 80 per cent of healthcare budgets are spent on managing chronic disease. For instance, diabetes affects over 8.5 per cent of the European adult population and is projected to rise above 10 per cent over the next 20 years. Its management is estimated costing up to 10 per cent of healthcare budgets.
With the many associated complications and the high likelihood of the patient suffering other chronic diseases, not having such blood-monitoring introduces many inefficiencies for doctors and patients who are reliant on the overloaded central test laboratories.
Radisens’ Horizon 2020 project, entitled Medmico (multimode integrated co-morbidity diagnostics) is integrating diabetes, heart disease and kidney disease panels on to its Gemini test platform.
Using a fraction of a drop of blood, this will give patients instant test results without the need for large needles.
Near-patient blood-testing is one of the fastest-growing segments of the healthcare industry, fuelled by the push towards improving patient outcomes, reducing healthcare inefficiencies and improving quality standards.
With plans to integrate other chronic disease tests in the future, Gemini hopes to decentralise the central laboratory into the physician office or pharmacy.
“Medmico closes the linkage between diagnostics and therapeutics, as current lab tests require days before results are available,” says Radisens chief executive Jerry O’Brien. “Our vision is that of confirmed blood tests, clinical counselling and prescribed therapies, all within a single physician or pharmacy visit, without fear of needles or anxious days of waiting for results, thereby empowering patients to better manage their chronic disease.”