Healthcare Technology Featured Article

October 01, 2013

Frost & Sullivan: Raising Public Awareness Promotes Global Uptake of Autoimmune Disease Diagnostic Tests


Frost & Sullivan is a well-known company that provides in-depth research coverage addressing the next wave of key industry challenges and market development opportunities, and exposes the problems that make or break today's market participants. Earlier in the year, it revealed an interesting analysis of the global autoimmune disease diagnostics market (Document NA91-52).

The document brings to light autoimmune disease diagnostics segment forecasts and trends. It reveals key element drivers that facilitate rapid and efficient testing, such as successful autoimmune disease awareness campaigns, and restraints in handling certain therapies such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) screenings and indirect fluorescent antibody (IFA) examination.

Recently, Frost & Sullivan published its research on the growth of the global autoimmune disease diagnostics market. It discovered that advertising campaigns have improved patient awareness, thus making millions of people in the country aware of “medications treating a wide variety of autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, chronic plaque psoriasis, Crohn's disease, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis, and polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis,” according to a Frost & Sullivan Healthcare research analyst.

Increasing public health awareness through a public service campaign (PSA), as does the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association (AARDA) yearly in March, for example, has led to higher diagnostic testing of patients with autoimmune disease symptoms and helped the global autoimmune disease diagnostics market to increase its revenue: from $712.5 million in 2012 to an estimated sale growth foreseeable to reach $1 billion in 2018.

Autoimmune disorders (AD, affect approximately 5 to 7 percent of the population and cause a third of mortality, affirmed the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). It is a condition that occurs when the body's immune system reacts incorrectly, attacking the body itself (like healthy cells and tissues). Symptoms vary according to the disease and can range from fatigue, anemia and arthritis to constantly experiencing digestive discomforts in gastrointestinal tract.

What’s more, ADs can affect almost any part of the body (skin, muscle and joints). Doctors find AD challenging to diagnose and difficult to treat.

Up till now, some physicians have questioned the value of manual autoimmune disease diagnostic tests for the reason that “as much as 30 percent of healthy patients test positive incorrectly and undergo unnecessary therapies and procedures,” reported Frost & Sullivan. This may be caused by the shortage of skilled technicians at hospitals, alleged the research analyst.

According to the Frost & Sullivan new findings, these days, health centers and clinical laboratories globally look to enhance productivity and cost-effective test panels to employ advanced simultaneous autoimmune disease diagnostic tests, which are said to provide the greatest value. In fact, the analyst expressed that “laboratory tests are helpful in differential diagnosis and for verification of the clinical diagnosis.”

The escalation of those with gastrointestinal autoimmune conditions, primarily celiac disease, a common form of AD, has increased demand for automated diagnostic platforms to allow medical facilities/laboratories to conduct higher diagnostic testing of patients without delay in diagnosis, treatment and potentially cure of autoimmune diseases.

For more information dedicated to increasing awareness of Autoimmunity and its diseases, check with Frost & Sullivan for the latest news and updates.




Edited by Alisen Downey
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