Molecular Diagnostic Testing and Its Future
Laboratories are a core component of the medical industry these days. These entities run all the tests for hospitals and account for a sizable portion of the decision of the diagnosis and prognosis of a patient. Unfortunately, they do not always have the healthiest budgets. As healthcare continues to improve everywhere, that means there will be more patients that will need lab work done.
However, a shortage is already happening in those fields because of the lack of recognition or representation. This is a pain point that can be overshadowed by the benefits of something known as Molecular Diagnostic Testing.
The future of testing “IS” Molecular Diagnostic Testing
What is molecular diagnostics? It is a way of testing the DNA or RNA sequences, our individual genetic code, and looking for potential issues. It is a way to test if someone is going to be more prone to disease as well as see if there is going to be a disease coming along soon.
It is becoming rapidly more prevalent in our society today, and the best common example one can see is the PCR test, which is, in fact, using the same methods to test for the Coronavirus.
Laboratories need to adapt
Labs who are accepting this type of molecular testing are going to be the ones that survive, and it is such a faster and more accurate method of testing because it goes straight to the genes. So molecular diagnostics will be expanding into two distinct fields.
Predisposition
The first is all about prevention which can help alleviate many overflowing medical locations, whether now or in the future, because it will tell the individual what they are predisposed to. Do they have a higher risk of cancer or cardiovascular disease? They help as a predictor of these diseases that can be completely asymptomatic and can stay that way for years.
That means a change in lifestyle or getting on a medical regime as a preventative measure from molecular testing can improve the livelihood of many without them simply getting sicker later in life and then becoming a burden on the system. Taking this preventative approach can work to eliminate the disease from emerging in the first place.
Acute testing
The other area is all about how fast and specific testing can be. As we approach flu season, the last thing that is needed is the Influenza virus covering for a possible new strain of SARS, Avian, or Coronavirus because of similar symptoms. Molecular Diagnostic Testing helps to say exactly what the disease is and goes beyond the typical systems of the Flu or getting COVID-19. That helps to separate people earlier on and will help to prevent, to a much greater extent, another major global pandemic.
Testing is getting faster
As we continue to pursue molecular diagnostics, it is only improving faster, which is helping prevent diseases as they happen. When looking at the past with the HIV epidemic and how long it took to get accurate testing versus the current pandemic, we can see how fast it was to get testing around the world. It was merely just a few months. All of this is due to the rapid explosion and necessity of molecular testing.
The more we can expand in this arena, the more we will be able to look at genome mapping that can help everyone to be able to take their own health into their hands in a much safer and rapid way. Look at molecular diagnostics as the future and standard of all types of testing, from knowing how we are made up to preventing diseases in our future to helping the global society rapidly respond to another pandemic.