INT Home Page / Applications / Medical Diagnostics |
|
Medical Diagnostics
INT's Palladium System enables effective point-of-care and field deployable diagnostics.
Point-of-care testing can improve health care while significantly reducing costs. Currently disease diagnosis is mostly performed in a central laboratory. The time to transport samples to a lab and to process a sample can delay treatment and may adversely affect a patient's condition or prognosis. INT's Palladium System can carry out tests on-site, within minutes. All that is required is for a sample to be collected from a patient, and placed into the sample cartridge, and loaded into the analyzer. In a single visit, a doctor can evaluate a patient's symptoms, order diagnostic tests, review the results and begin treatment. The ability to test for multiple agents simultaneously allows for panels of tests to be run together to test all major potential causes of a set of symptoms. This greatly increases the ability to positively identify the cause of a disease and to begin the most effective treatment. Tests for drug resistance can also be carried out on the pathogens allowing for drug treatments targeted for the infecting strain, minimizing return visits and advancing rapid recovery of the patient. Therefore, in a single visit, patients get better care and health care is provided more efficiently and at a lower cost.
INT's Palladium System can also revolutionize health care in developing countries. The system is low cost and easy to use. However, its biggest impact is on the logistical needs of the medical providers: the system decreases the need for large laboratories, shipping and storage of samples and the need for highly trained technicians. In rural areas, patients can travel for a day or more at significant expense to get to a doctor. Follow up visits are prohibitive, therefore, results are needed before the patient leaves to return home.
The system also provides a significant increase in capability for surveillance of emerging disease. Over the past few years, several new diseases have appeared including swine and avian influenza. Some of these diseases have had the potential to trigger a pandemic which could result in high rates of illness and loss of life. The field systems allow for screening for infected individuals at border entry points as well as rapid identification of infected patients within the country. As a networked system, health officials would have up to date information on disease spread allowing for efficient deployment of vaccines, drugs and health providers to best control the spread of disease and to treat infected patients.