The diagnostics market is basically driven by technology, shift to preventive and predictive healthcare from reactive treatment-based care, and value-based healthcare. The time won’t be far when bio-medical information systems would, through the incorporation of wearable’s and embedded sensors, track as well as upload information about the patient (s) onto personal “intelligence” cloud. Also, healthcare systems would be trying to render the best services emphasizing on cost-effectiveness.

The trends mentioned above are driving the demand for precision medicine. It is also known as “personalized medicine”, which works on information regarding the patient’s genes. The noteworthy discoveries herein include single nucleotide polymorphism and biochips/microarrays. The future, thus, lies in human genome research (genetics, molecular profiles, and clinical characteristics would determine the course of treatment).

Amongst the clinical efforts taken for diagnosis of disease, the present scenario is such that immunoassay interference blockers do influence close to 70% of the overall decisions. It also needs to be noted that biotin interference may result in inaccurate results, which may restrain the usage of immunoassay interference blockers.

Amongst the chronic ailments grasping the female population at large, uterine cancer holds ground. Uterine cancer diagnostics, by type, comprise endometrial biopsy, blood test, imaging, and others. The end-users could be cancer research centers, diagnostic centers, and hospitals. Regarding developments, GE Healthcare, in September 2018, did receive approval from the US FDA for its Voluson E6, Voluson E10, Voluson E8 pulsed Doppler imaging system. Also, Samsung Medison Co., Ltd., in November 2018, received approval from the same body for its HS50/HS60 Diagnostic Ultrasound System. The application area is “transvaginal ultrasound scanning”.

Molecular diagnostics infectious disease testing comes across as the first step towards proper healthcare system. These tests analyse the biological markers that are involved in various human ailments. They, thereby, make way for critical information helping patients and healthcare providers alike for making appropriate medical decisions, so as to have a win-win situation overall.

Extending molecular diagnostics, veterinary molecular diagnostics are witnessing an extensive demand out of increasing awareness regarding animal health. They include FISH (Fluorescent in situ Hybridization), PCR (Polymerase Chain Response), and nanotechnology, electrochemical location of DNA, proteomic innovations, biochips, and PNA (Peptide Nucleic Acids). BioChek, in March 2018, did announce launching Salmonella Enteritidis-Typhimurium-Heidelberg DNA test kit along with “Infectious Bronchitis Virus RNA Test Kit” for detection in the avian samples.

Certain people’s medical history is such that they tend to over-react too an infection. This is nothing but “sepsis”. Several technological advancements are being witnessed regarding sepsis diagnostics, more so, after the WHO stating that sepsis does affect over 30 Mn people every single year. It further states that nearly 3 Mn infants and 1.2 Mn children aged 5 and below contract sepsis on an annual basis. Looking through the ongoing pandemic, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, better known as BARDA, entered into collaboration with Beckman Coulter to develop a digital algorithm for identifying sepsis in Covid +ve patients.

Heart attack diagnostics is also witnessing a series of innovations, especially after people realizing the fact that early diagnosis could avoid any complications further. By type, it says ECG (Electrocardiogram), and blood tests (CK-MB, Troponin, and others). Out of these, the developing economies prefer blood tests due to the cost factor involved.

Research states that heart-related ailments could be inherited. Cardiovascular genomic testing does help in detection of congenital heart diseases and aortopathy. The ones at risk of heart-related problems could also get some insights through cardiac genomic testing. NGS (Next Generation Sequencing) is the technology used herein.

Antibody tests, better known as serology tests, have picked up pace after the outbreak of Covid-19 in the last quarter of 2019 and more so in 2020 after the WHO declaring it a pandemic. The detection of antibodies helps in the differential diagnosis of Covid-19. The patient’s serum or plasma is subject to antibody testing, with reagent red cells to add. As of now, plasma therapy has been approved by the US FDA. Definitive course of treatment is still not in place.

Persistence Market Research (PMR), through its market study on “Diagnostics Market”, has profiled the market players as follows:

• Qiagen
• Menarini Silicon Biosystems
• Eagle Genomics
• Biocrates Life Sciences
• Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.
• bioMerieux S.A.
• Bio-Rad Laboratories
• Abbott Molecular
• Luminex Corporation
• Amara Health Analytics
• Siemens Healthcare GmbH
• Hitachi Medical Systems
• Color Genomics, Inc.
• Creative Diagnostics
• CENTOGENE AG

PMR has also highlighted the fact that the Project GENIE (Genomics Evidence Neoplasia Information Exchange) launched by AACR (American Association for Cancer Research) makes way for data-sharing that simplifies precision oncology by integration of clinical and genomic data of the cancer-affected patients.

Geography-wise, PMR states that North America dominates, followed by Europe, the Asia-Pacific, LATAM, and MEA.