Convergence: Diagnostics are Key to Life Sciences Innovation and Health Care Service Delivery

Attendees at G2 Intelligence’s 34th annual Lab Institute were treated to a history lesson about diagnostics as well as forward-looking discussions that illuminated the current state and the future of the laboratory industry and clinical diagnostics.

Opening keynote speaker, Kristin Pothier, Global Head of Life Sciences in Transaction Advisory Services at EY, highlighted key areas of life sciences that are driving convergence among various, previously independent sectors within the health care marketplace: pharmaceutical research and development, precision medicine and patient information. Pothier’s presentation demonstrated how new technologies and business models, precision medicine and the increasing prevalence of companion diagnostics are highlighting the value of diagnostics and driving alliances and acquisitions involving in-vitro diagnostics companies. Big data and increased access to patient information, mobile technology and rising consumerism are also revolutionizing patient care, according to Pothier. She predicted continued investment in “data-heavy solutions,” reference laboratories and IVD companies and bioinformatics.

In his keynote addressing the state of the laboratory industry, Dr. Gregory Henderson, CEO of BioReference Laboratories, discussed a convergence of a different kind—the convergence of diagnostics and health care providers with patients and their data. He emphasized the importance of the patient and patient access to data in an increasingly mobile and data-intense age. Henderson discussed the lab industry’s need to educate and involve patients in the health care delivery process—providing “actionable medical knowledge” and explaining for patients the data generated in health care. He discussed this challenge in the context of the diagnostic industry’s history. He began his presentation highlighting the differing viewpoints of chemists and vitalists about the need for lab testing to assist diagnosis roughly 200 years ago to gain perspective on the industry’s current challenges. The takeaway: Labs must confront similar challenges faced by those many years ago to demonstrate the value of diagnostic testing and manage utilization.

Pictured above: Kelly A. Hardy, G2 Intelligence; Kristin Pothier, EY Transaction Advisory Services; Gregory S. Henderson, M.D., Ph.D, BioReference Laboratories; and Mark Ziebarth, G2 Intelligence.