Perils of the pandemic and a transformed diagnostic vision

The journey of Aster Labs started in March 2019. It has been quite a birth during the coronavirus pandemic and a tough start for Aster Labs. However, post that, today we have a wide diagnostic infrastructure presence in Karnataka and Kerala, with one state-of-the-art NABL-accredited national reference laboratory situated in Bangalore. We are planning to expand our footprint to more metro cities in southern and western parts of India in FY22. With our vision of making world-class diagnostics accessible and affordable to every Indian, one of our key methodologies is to invest in developing patient experience centers across cities in association with partners, who are keen to join Aster Labs as franchisees. These centers, backed by world-class technologies, provide best-in-class patient experience and service to customers.

Our NABL-accredited reference lab conducts over 2500 tests in clinical biochemistry, clinical pathology, cytopathology, hematology, histopathology, cytogenetics, flowcytometry, microbiology, and molecular biology. We were amongst the first NABL-accredited private diagnostic chains in Bangalore to start COVID-19 testing in the battle against COVID in 2020.

We are proud to inherit Aster DM’s healthcare legacy of trust, spanning seven countries for three decades, with over 365 healthcare establishments ranging from hospitals, clinics, retail pharmacies, and diagnostic labs. Carrying this legacy, we are committed to upholding it by living to the same clinical standard of excellence.

One of our key strengths is our team of highly experienced pathologists, who have deep expertise in diverse fields and help in delivering the promise of the true test (which is our motto) to all our patients. To achieve a competitive edge, we partner with the best in industry technology players to provide accurate, precise reports in short turnaround time, which is the crucible of performance for the diagnostic business. As we expand, we continue to build and enhance our specialized test menu and venture into new areas like genetic tests.

In the post-pandemic era, we see a drastic shift in the lifestyle of people, who have become more confined to their homes and have become more health conscious. This has made preventive health check-ups an even more glaring need of the hour. To address this need, we have launched a series of customer-segment-focused packages, and will soon add more to our offerings in this area.

In all markets that we play in, we also are reaching out to key clinicians so that the promise of Aster Labs and the true test is conveyed to each. At the same time, we are connecting with customers and patients so that our expanding patient experience center network can meet their needs effectively.

In this service industry, we understand the need for providing service at the right time and at the right place. In the post-COVID era, the increasing trend in availing healthcare services at home has been another tectonic shift in customer behaviour. With the service of home collection, enabling sample pickup at their doorsteps, we meet this new requirement in the post-COVID world, and offer safety along with service to all our customers.

The pandemic threw up new challenges for the healthcare sector. Being born during the pandemic, we faced these head-on and emerged stronger. To address these, we stayed on top by adopting the best of technologies so that quality service can be rendered to the patients. The coronavirus pandemic has made us more nimble in our approach. We salute our frontline team of phlebotomists and our dedicated lab technologists and pathologists, whose untiring and selfless efforts during the COVID waves helped us support the nation’s battle against COVID. As India opens up in the COVID era, we continue to support the country through many initiatives like establishing a mobile lab at Bangalore International Airport to address the need of travellers.

Conclusion
We, at Aster Labs, believe when the test is true, there is no room for doubt, and we are here to ensure that every patient gets the most accurate laboratory results every single time, in every lab report.