IVD Technology Magazine | IVDT Article Index
Originally published May, 1997
Editor's Page
Survival in the wild
It might have been missed, tucked away on the final day, but last month's Oak Ridge Conference in St. Louis ended with a noteworthy exchange of views on the state of the diagnostics industry. Sponsored by the American Association for Clinical Chemistry, Inc. (Washington, DC)--and by IVD Technology--Oak Ridge is traditionally a meeting place for researchers, manufacturers, and laboratorians involved in clinical testing.
The conference is also a good vantage point for the varied perspectives that give vision to the IVD industry. This year, the conference's final session focused on the commercialization and adoption of new technologies, and offered views from a laboratorian, a hospital administrator, and a payer organization. More than anything else, the panelists demonstrated just how diverse the current pressures on IVD manufacturers are.
Laboratorian Dennis O'Kane of the Mayo Foundation (Rochester, MN) argued that "The availability of technology should not drive the process of assay development. Instead, technological innovations should be exploited to help answer underlying clinical questions."
Almost no solution to the problems of implementing new technologies could be that pure. The panelists agreed that cost-effectiveness would continue to be nearly as important as medical need. Ed Ness, a hospital administrator at Evanston Hospital (Glen Ellyn, IL), reminded attendees of current concerns over test panels now being commercialized, and indicated that "New guidelines being worked out by Medicare may determine what the government and other insurers will pay for."
Even so, concern over the cost of new technologies may not be shared equally. Representing the payer community, Edward Hutt of Centene Corp. (St. Louis) suggested that one goal of payer organizations is to rid themselves of the nuisance of lab costs. "When global capitation is imposed, the cost of lab services is no longer of concern to an HMO. At that point, costs are the lab's problem."
So why should all this matter to IVD manufacturers? Simply put, it's a matter of survival. In the current climate of the health-care industry, IVD manufacturers serve a constituency that is itself being pulled in many directions, with imperatives at every turn. Responding to the needs of payers, purchasers, physicians, laboratorians, and patients will be essential for any IVD company that wants to succeed.
Figuring all this out won't be easy. Hospital administrators such as Ness want to know "what expertise the manufacturer can bring as a partner," while others, such as Hutt, emphasize that "manufacturers need to demonstrate to laboratorians that their tests can save money."
Unfortunately, it doesn't help manufacturers much to know that there are many such equally valid views. But they may take solace in one belief voiced by panelist Hutt: "It's important that diagnostics manufacturers survive."
Steven Halasey
Editor
