Heightened health awareness following the Covid-19 pandemic has brought new attention to the diagnostics industry and subsequent efforts to improve the testing process. Riding on rapid technological advancements, the past two years have seen an increased consumer demand for point-of-care testing (PoCT) and home collection, which will likely shape the future of the diagnostics sector, according to experts.
How Covid Ushered Need For Preventive Testing
Before Covid struck, diagnostic testing was used as a tool to support doctors in diagnosing illness so that the patient could get further treatment. As soon as the pandemic brought the world to its knees, diagnostic labs became the centre stage, underscoring the importance of screening and diagnostic tests besides the efficient delivery of high-quality results.
Calling diagnostic labs the "healthcare barometer of the society", Dr Prashant Nag, clinical head, Tata 1mg Labs, said there has been a cultural shift following the Covid lockdown and people are now opting for preventive health checkups.
"Before Covid, people visited labs only when needed or when they had symptoms of a disease. Now, people are coming for health checkups quarterly or half-yearly. There has been a rise in preventive health check-ups since Covid struck," Dr Nag told ABP Live.
Size Of India's Diagnostics Market
Presently, the size of the Indian diagnostics market is around $10 billion and is estimated to be $20 billion by FY26, a report by Praxis Global Alliance, a global management consulting and advisory firm, has said.
India's point-of-care testing (POCT) market is set for a double-digit growth for the period of FY18-FY23 in terms of revenue, according to Ken Research.
However, the diagnostic industry in India is fragmented with over 1,00,000 labs. Of the $10 billion market, standalone diagnostic centres account for 48 per cent market share, followed by hospital-based labs with 37 per cent share and national chains accounting for only a 5 per cent share.
Even though the pandemic has ushered in a silent transformation in the diagnostics sector, the industry still faces several challenges.
"The major challenges which need to be addressed to scale up this market are simple-to-use devices, robust reagents and consumables for use over extended periods of time. Results from POCT devices should be concordant with established laboratory methods," Dr Reena Nakra, principal director (Lab Management and Technical Excellence) of Dr Lal PathLabs, told ABP Live.
Affordable, Extensive Health Checkup Packages
A silver lining amid the pandemic gloom has been how the need for testing brought down the pricing of the kits for testing as well as the consumables.
"We have seen how the prices of PPE, sanitisers and gloves etc. have reduced at a pace never seen before. This helped bring down test pricing," said Dr Nakra of Lal PathLabs.
Rates of health checkup tests have also tremendously reduced and diagnostic companies are now providing more extensive and affordable health checkup packages.
"Preventive health checkups have gone up, so have the number of tests, thereby reducing the cost of investigations,'' said Dr Nag of Tata 1mg Labs.
"For example, in the lipid profile package, we have extensive categories. The extended lipid profile test includes cardiac markers as well. These parameters give prior insights to people about their heart condition. Before reaching the critical stage, they can now know beforehand of any impending heart-related issue," he added.
Alerting Future Disease Outbreaks And Trends
So, with more people now opting for preventive testing, thus making more samples available, can this help alert future disease outbreaks?
Dr Nakra said it would definitely provide an opportunity to predict trends in disease prevalence and create alerts specific to geographies. However, she flagged that connecting the silos of healthcare for seamless patient care would require a strong and secure integrated digital health infrastructure.
"The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) will help enable this digital ecosystem to allow for secure patient data exchange between healthcare providers, diagnostics and the state to predict and prevent infections and improve patient outcomes," Dr Nakra said.
The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, launched in September 2021 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, aims to provide digital health IDs for all Indian citizens to help hospitals, insurance firms, and citizens access health records electronically when required.
At Tata 1mg, there has been an 82 per cent increase in allergy screen, IgE levels, phadiatop tests in October compared to September, coinciding with deterioration of air quality in northern India due to stubble burning. It has resulted in an increased incidence of asthma, allergic rhinitis and other allergic disorders, said Dr Nag.
Some long-term trends that health checkups at Tata 1mg have thrown are a change in the lipid profile of the younger population.
"The lipid profile and homocysteine levels are found to be deranged even in the younger population, mainly due to sedentary lifestyle, unhealthy food habits, and stress. Cholesterol issues are now being seen more in people under 40 years. Healthy people should also be screened for the risk of heart disease," Dr Nag said.
Digitisation and Automation At Diagnostic Labs
While an increase in preventive testing has been a welcome step, diagnostic laboratories have been saddled with a huge workload and at the same time, maintaining the quality, affordability and accuracy of the tests. This is where automation and digitisation has started to play a significant role and will become an inherent part of operations in the days to come, the experts said.
"Automation and digitisation at labs has helped deliver consistency of quality and service and with advancements in workflow-based checks and algorithms, it can enhance the quality of results," said Dr Nakra of Lal PathLabs.
The healthcare crisis triggered due to the pandemic saw the barriers of adoption for digital and telehealth being broken down, resulting in a positive impact on public and private partnerships for the delivery of healthcare.
"The flow of data from government portals to private labs and vice versa was quickly established and this has set the environment for shared data for patient health outcomes. The urgent need for timely, and real-time data entry into ICMR/govt portals catapulted the adoption of digital initiatives and workflow designs using automated robotic entries via bots. As a response to the pandemic, we worked smarter and faster," Dr Nakra said.
According to her, there was a 72 per cent rise in the adoption of digital solutions, of which 46 per cent were first time users of telehealth solutions. "These are significant statistics that signal an opportunity for sustained change and development in digital healthcare," she said.