Diagnostics industry – Transformation, prediction, and way forward

COVID-19 has radically transformed the various aspects of human life. A key element of this transformation has been digitalization. Many leaders say they see the consumer and the adoption of advanced technologies as part of future strategies, but they also maintain that there are many challenges and barriers to integrating them. The gap between what healthcare incumbents offer today and what will likely be table stakes in the future of health has created an opening for health tech innovators, consumer focused, tech–centric companies.

Since the first modern diagnostics technologies were developed in the 1970s and 1980s, advances in device technology have significantly altered the practical aspects of diagnosis, giving clinicians’ tools to visualize and probe the human conditions at anatomical, functional, and molecular levels. Patients have benefited from these technologies, as much as it has altered the practice of medicine.

Diagnostic technologies matter in healthcare systems largely because diagnosis is the point at which clinical decision–making determines whether future clinical activity is needed. Treatment depends on reliable diagnosis. We have also implemented new-age digital infrastructure to keep pace with the current pathology demands.

Post-COVID, the pathology industry has been shifting gears and accelerating toward creating patient-centric eco-system. Due to COVID-19 spread, the industry has gradually realized the true potential of molecular division. So, we have recently launched a few molecular labs, with a clear focus on COVID-19, infectious diseases, and cancer testing.

Molecular diagnostics for the first time will represent more than 15 percent of the market, double where the category fell in 2019. This reflects not only PCR tests for the virus, but also the continued use of molecular for new purposes such as prenatal testing and cancer marker detection.

Diagnostic industry is approx. `675 billion, 37 percent labs are hospital based, 47 percent laboratory are standalone labs and only 16 percent are diagnostic chains who drive the organized market, 6 percent are pan India players, and 11 percent are regional chain laboratories. These statistics tell everything, and the kind of work that needs to be done in our industry.
Moreover, COVID pandemic and weakened market conditions have led to a surge in consolidation mergers and acquisitions (M&A). So what has happened to telecom industry, and airlines industry will happen in healthcare also. Big-sized pathology companies are spreading their network by acquiring smaller pathology setups. It looks like a promising phase for the pathology industry.
Pathologists and clinical laboratory managers in North America and Europe may want to pay closer attention to development of the pathology testing industry in India, for several reasons.

M&A of pathology testing companies in India are likely to become a dominant trend in coming years. We, as a fastest growing laboratory chain of Gujarat will look for such opportunity in the year 2021–2022.

Growth areas outside of COVID-19 testing were tests for other respiratory pathogens; critical care tests such as blood gas and sepsis markers, immunoassays for infectious diseases and point-of-care tests. Areas affected by COVID-19 and resulting social distancing were diabetes tests, cancer tests, and inherited diseases. Despite some loss in volume due to social distancing, area like liquid biopsy and automated histology remain promising technologies for the long-term.

On the technology front, we would like to explore a lot of new test, which we would like to perform in-house and build our testing capacity further so that we can offer better services and complete solutions to our partners’ labs.