8 BIOEdit
BioSpectrum | November 2017 | www . biospectrumindia . com
Diagnosing - the right way !
Process of many medical treatments begin from the pathology labs with doctors recommending some diagnostic tests to the patient . The number of treatment processes beginning with the diagnostic tests in the labs is growing faster as doctors ’ dependence on tests to detect a disease and line of treatment is also increasing due to various reasons . The diagnostic tests have thus become a crucial aspect in the treatment since correct diagnosis lead to correct analysis and further to correct line of treatment .
In the diagnostic tests sector , India is now entering into a new important era with leading laboratories from four nations – India , Sri Lanka , South Africa and UAE coming together to launch India ’ s first Global Pathology Laboratory Consortium called Neuberg Diagnostics . It will have three world class global reference labs in Bengaluru , Ahmedabad and Durban ( South Africa ). As these labs will have a global reference , no doubt they will have facilities for advanced range of testing using new generation techniques at all levels with big data analytics tools and lab information systems .
This development is an indicator of the potential this sector holds . It is considered to be a booming sector .
India is estimated to have over one lakh diagnostic and pathology labs providing services to patients . But this is only an estimate as the count and is not even documented , according to Association of Practicing Pathologists of India ( APPI ). Even if the estimated number of one lakh is considered , though it appears to be a big one it is actually very small considering the population of the country , which is nearly 1.3 billion and still growing . Several rural areas are still deprived of such facilities . At many places the facilities are available just for name sake – either they are providing just some basic tests or they are not functional . Condition of labs in smaller government healthcare establishments is bad . Thus , India needs many more labs and that too in good and proper working conditions . Hardly 10 % of the labs are in organized sector while 90 % fall in
the unorganized sector . As per APPI ’ s information just over 650 labs are accredited .
One important issue related to these labs , which came into forefront following a recent Delhi High Court decision , is the verification of reports . The court has ruled in favour of the medical council ’ s decision that the test reports of patients should be verified and certified by only post-graduate medical practitioner pathologists registered with medical council and its state units . The general practice in many labs is that the lab technicians , who are diploma holders or equivalent conduct the tests and sign the reports also . On Medical Council of India ’ s stand , Association of Clinical Microbiologists and Biochemists ( ACMB ) moved the court claiming that they too are qualified and can conduct tests . Court ’ s decision is an important step forward in the direction of professionalism . Although there could be some issues in its implementation – which there are always when a new rule is implemented – they can be overcome . One major issue in the way of making this sector more professional is that it lacks proper regulatory system , although the central government notified certain standards for the labs and divided them into three categories ( as basic , medium and advanced ).
However , a lot more needs to be done to provide relief to patients . Metro cities and some two tier cities are now having highly professional labs with certain minimum standards . While increasing the number of labs on one side , particularly in rural and remote areas , they have to be brought to a certain minimum level and standards . And more importantly they need to be monitored on regular basis . Forming an international consortium to set up international level labs will not change everything in one day . But such steps percolate the practices and surely help in making others to move into the direction of good practices . That is the importance of developing an international consortium for diagnostic labs .
Milind Kokje Chief Editor milind . kokje @ mmactiv . com