Transformative diagnostic innovations are often described by their features – drastic improvements in sensitivity, lower cost approaches – or as collaborations between clinical investigators who are experts in a need and solution-oriented engineers. While these elements are necessary, they are not sufficient for the scientific community to maximize its impact on global health. Point solutions run the risk of being siloed, failing to take into account the context of care and not contributing results to address public health questions. How do we drive meaningful adoption and consider an innovation in the context of other information and tools available at the point of care? How can point of care technologies be developed to be adapted to multiple settings, each with different resources? In this session, speakers will discuss how a diagnostic systems approach relates to their work, demonstrating the benefit of integrating multiple data streams for decision making. This will be followed by questions and a discussion of lessons learned that may apply to the audience [Specific case studies include infectious disease testing, managing care during pregnancy, and enabling tools in digital health.
Chairs:
Arunan Skandarajah, PhD – Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Laura Povlich, PhD – Fogarty International Center, NIH
Speakers:
Jeff Stringer, MD, UNC
Sally McFall, PhD, Northwestern University
John Wilbanks, BA – Sage Bionetworks
Catharina Boehme, MD – Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND)