PC: How can the efficiencies presented by at-home diagnostic tests help strengthen the pharma/healthcare supply chain as a whole?
Walsh: I think it comes down to preventative care. If patients are being proactive, they’re actually doing the tests that they need to do to get diagnosed. I think there’s a stat that says that 70% of clinical decision-making relies on some sort of diagnostic test, and a lot of patients don’t take those tests. Even when they’re sent to do the test, they don’t take them, and that results in complications down the road. If they’re not getting diagnosed soon enough, and they’re not getting treatment soon enough, it’s going to create more complications. It’s going to create more strain on the healthcare system because these conditions are just getting worse, and patients are are essentially costing the healthcare system even more.
So the fact that patients are more compliant with tests because of the ease and accessibility of home tests, and they’re even being more proactive about getting these diagnoses shortly after seeing a doctor, or even before seeing a doctor, and inspiring them to see a doctor, that’s just going to get diagnosis faster, it’s going to get treatments faster, and it’s ultimately going to save money for the entire healthcare system, because patients are being more preventative and taking care of themselves.
PC: What are the benefits in having at-home testing results automatically routed to physicians’ offices?
Walsh: In the typical workflow, when a doctor orders a patient to go to a Quest or a Labcorp, or even draws blood in the office, that’s ordered through EHR. The results come back through EHR. I think that’s obviously super important, because it’s not relying on the patient to bring the results back or send them back, it just happens automatically. And I think the challenge sometimes with these home tests, is they can be done outside of the clinician workflow. A lot of home tests that are out there, you take them more to understand about yourself, and maybe you’ll take them to a doctor. Maybe you’ll forget. But if they’re not getting back to the doctor, you’re not really doing much to treat yourself. You’re kind of just understanding things about yourself.
Yes, it may be more motivating to go see a doctor, but you’re not necessarily getting those results back to your doctor. So I think it’s super important that when you set up a home testing program and you use a technology platform to do so, you have a way that those results are automatically routed back to your treating physician, so they’re having the full impact that they can have, and they’re not kind of happening in a vacuum, and not getting their way back to the doctor, who will ultimately help you take next steps as a result of whatever you found from the test.