“That’s Where the Money Is” – AI in IVD Webinar Identifies Profit Potential

Most IVDs are commodity tests, and growth of value and scope is the way to counter that, said Greg Powell, of Howe Sound research (an IVD market research company) on a recent webinar. Greg is the lead author of a 540-page market research study (Available for order on EYE ON IVD: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN IVD MARKETS – Eye On IVD ). He discussed his findings on a recent webinar.

Value and scope drives price and that drives IVD profits, Powell said. And the reason AI is essential to seeing better-than-average growth rates in IVD instead of low ones is because it can get to that value/scope equation sooner.

“To give you example, with syndromic testing you’ve increaed the scope people are able to charge more because you get 27 results instead of a single test. Cancer profiling is another, billings in the thousands of dollars per test because of the value of the scope.”

Conventional tests can achieve some of this dynamic, but AI processing power makes this far more realistic.

He cites the example of Luventix (www.luventix.com), an AI-based gas chromatography test as an example of how AI might change traditional testing.

“They’ve got a pattern recogniton gas chromatography urinalysis test. So theyre talkign about doing a lung cancer diagnosis based on a simple urinalysis test to suggst a patient may have a cancerous condition.”

Per Luventix website: “Urine metabolomic data is rich, extensive and an untapped resource for diagnostics. It’s sometimes perceived as too “messy” in terms of all the signals and the disparate data sets contained within it (environmental, dietary, inorganic compounds etc.). This has limited its use for diagnostic purposes.”

“Standard tests, Powell said, “peform patern recognition based on studying individual biomarker and having those be analysted and studied and measured again.” whereas the AI test can use the gas chromagraphic pattern to deliver a value of scope. Luventix is an example but there are other tests adding to value of scope.

We will report more findings from our webinar in future editions of the EYE.