One of the largest laboratory operators in the GCC has secured a deal for the world’s first and only laboratory business management solution, in a bid to accelerate testing of the novel coronavirus in the region.
According to a report by Gulf News, the UAE-based Pure Health – which manages a network of 115 laboratories in the country – has signed an agreement with global healthcare information systems and technology provider, InterSystems to deploy its InterSystems TrakCare Lab Enterprise (TCLE). An automated platform, TCLE works by reading and collecting patient data, with minimal manual input, thereby accelerating the screening process. According to InterSystems, it has been designed to “help labs transform from a reactive testing and results service, typically supported by a traditional data and analytical management solution, to a data-driven organisation capable of meeting increased expectations for modern pathology services”.
Pure Health currently has two labs in the UAE dedicated to COVID-19 testing, one in the capital Abu Dhabi and the other in Sharjah, with a third set to launch later on this week in Dubai. According to the company, this will result in it having the “largest COVID-19 testing capability in the Middle East” with the capacity to perform 25,000 tests daily.
“Our team has been working round the clock so that our partners can speed up turnaround times on results and create specialised labs to reduce the load on public hospitals while fighting the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Ali Abi Raad, InterSystems country manager for the Middle East and India. “This is an unprecedented time, and the need for PCR [polymerase chain reaction] testing has never been higher.”
WHY IT MATTERS
The UAE currently ranks third in the world in terms of screening per capita, with a total of 648,195 coronavirus tests conducted so far in a population of 9.6 million people. Keen to quickly identify those affected, the UAE government has implemented mass testing programmes across the emirate.
Since the outbreak was announced earlier this year, the UAE has confirmed 4,521 cases of coronavirus so far.
ON THE RECORD
“We have been collaborating with healthcare providers and authorities in this screening initiative across the nation since the beginning. Pure Health has been conducting COVID-19 tests in more than 15 collection centres and two processing locations in the UAE,” said Adnan Asif, chief technology officer at Pure Health. “We will soon increase our capacity to conduct up to 75,000 COVID-19 tests daily.
“A few days ago, the UAE announced that 593,095 COVID-19 tests were performed until that day, out of which 259,000 tests were conducted by Pure Health. We have crossed the mark of doing 200,000 COVID-19 tests since the beginning of February, making it the largest number of tests conducted by a single laboratory network within the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.
He continued: “As of 7 April, the Ministry of Health and Prevention conducted 593,095 screenings for Coronavirus. This puts the UAE’s efforts at around 60,000 tests per million people – one of the highest testing density standards in the world.”
