A faster diagnosis of infection is a critical unmet need.

Globally, clinical pathways for infection & sepsis are sub-optimal. Diagnosis is too slow, and antibiotics are overprescribed. Sepsis affects 49m people each year, with 11m succumbing.

A gold standard precision diagnostic test for infection can drastically reduce costs, optimise the diagnostic pathway, and alleviate hospital pressure by reducing admissions.

Emergency Departments Overwhelmed

Patients with presumed infection who are potentially at risk of developing sepsis represent up to 38% of the UK’s emergency department admissions.1

Standard diagnostic tests are slow (1-3 days) and lack accuracy (50-75%)

Traditional diagnosis methods are insufficient.

Current diagnostic standards of care for infections can be slow and imprecise.

When patients are admitted to the hospital, clinicians are expected to adhere to guidelines that emphasise timely infection diagnosis.

The limitations of current diagnostic tools pose a substantial obstacle to achieving timely and accurate infection diagnoses. When clinicians are unable to meet the guidelines for prompt diagnosis, they may be compelled to make critical decisions based on insufficient data, potentially jeopardising patient outcomes.

The guidelines underscore the imperative of antimicrobial stewardship, which entails the prudent use of antibiotics to mitigate the emergence of antibiotic resistance. This necessitates minimising unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions and selecting the most suitable antibiotic for each specific infection.

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR):

A crisis being fueled by treating with antibiotics non-optimally.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is the ability of microorganisms like bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites to resist the effects of antimicrobial drugs. This is a major global health threat because it makes infections harder to treat, leading to increased morbidity and mortality.

The overuse of antibiotics, or antibiotics used sub-optimally, is contributing to the development of resistant bacteria. 1 in 4 infections is already resistant to antibiotics.

AMR is projected to result in up to US$3.4 trillion of GDP losses per year by 2030. It will kill more people than cancer by 2050.

In addition to developing new antibiotics, it is critical that we improve infection diagnosis to prevent unnecessary antibiotic use.

Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) associated with antibiotics affect up to 35% of patients and add significant healthcare cost. In respiratory prescriptions alone, they add £300m of UK NHS cost per year. Yet up to 70% of these antibiotics may be unnecessary18

Antimicrobial resistant infection incurs a per patient cost up to US$29,000.13

Addressing this unmet clinical
need will have a significant impact.

Hospitals & Clinicians

Reduce mortality. Reduce the length of hospital stays. Reduce costs per patient.

Patients

Shorter hospital stays. Reduced discomfort. Improve quality of life and trust in healthcare providers. Reduced adverse drug reactions.

Society

Reduced burden of AMR. Maintaining efficacy of antibiotics. Reduced mortality. Reduced cost.

  1. Heffernan AJ, Denny KJ. Host Diagnostic Biomarkers of Infection in the ICU: Where Are We and Where Are We Going? Curr Infect Dis Rep. 2021;23(4):1-11. doi:10.1007/S11908-021-00747-0/TABLES/2
  2. Dahm MR, Cattanach W, Williams M, et al. Communication of Diagnostic Uncertainty in Primary Care and Its Impact on Patient Experience: an Integrative Systematic Review. J Gen Intern Med. 2023;38(3):738. doi:10.1007/S11606-022-07768-Y
  3. Caliendo AM, Gilbert DN, Ginocchio CC, et al. Better Tests, Better Care: Improved Diagnostics for Infectious Diseases. Clin Infect Dis. 2013;57(Suppl 3):S139. doi:10.1093/CID/CIT578
  4. Coon ER, Maloney CG, Shen MW. Antibiotic and Diagnostic Discordance Between ED Physicians and Hospitalists for Pediatric Respiratory Illness. Hosp Pediatr. 2015;5(3):111-118. doi:10.1542/HPEDS.2014-0110
  5. Lopansri BK, Miller RR, Burke JP, et al. Physician agreement on the diagnosis of sepsis in the intensive care unit: Estimation of concordance and analysis of underlying factors in a multicenter cohort. J Intensive Care. 2019;7(1):1-17. doi:10.1186/S40560-019-0368-2/FIGURES/5
  6. Caterino JM, Leininger R, Kline DM, et al. Accuracy of Current Diagnostic Criteria for Acute Bacterial Infection in Older Adults in the Emergency Department. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2017;65(8):1802-1809. doi:10.1111/JGS.14912
  7. Filice GA, Drekonja DM, Thurn JR, et al. Diagnostic Errors that Lead to Inappropriate Antimicrobial Use. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2015;36(8):949-956. doi:10.1017/ICE.2015.113
  8. Klouwenberg PMCK, Ong DSY, Bos LDJ, et al. Interobserver agreement of centers for disease control and prevention criteria for classifying infections in critically ill patients. Crit Care Med. 2013;41(10):2373-2378. doi:10.1097/CCM.0B013E3182923712
  9. Roger PM, Martin C, Taurel M, et al. Motives for the prescription of antibiotics in the emergency department of the University Hospital Center in Nice. A prospective study. Presse Med. 2002;31(2):58-63. PMID: 11850986
    Antimicrobial resistance. (2023) https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/antimicrobial-resistance. Accessed July 22, 2024
  10. Sabo SR, Venkatramanan A, Shorr AF. At the Intersection of Critical Care and Infectious Diseases: The Year in Review. 2024;12(3):562. doi:10.3390/biomedicines12030562
  11. Rudd KE, Johnson SC, Agesa KM, et al. Global, regional, and national sepsis incidence and mortality, 1990-2017: analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study. Lancet. 2020;395(10219):200-211. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(19)32989-7
  12. World Bank Group. (2017) Drug-resistant infections: a threat to our economic future (Vol. 2): final report. https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/323311493396993758/final-report. Accessed July 10, 2024
  13. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019) Antibiotic Resistance Threats in the United States, 2019. https://www.cdc.gov/antimicrobial-resistance/data-research/threats/index.html. Accessed July 22, 2024
  14. Singer M, Deutschman CS, Seymour C, et al. The Third International Consensus Definitions for Sepsis and Septic Shock (Sepsis-3). JAMA. 2016;315(8):801. doi:10.1001/JAMA.2016.0287
  15. Kumar A, Roberts D, Wood KE, et al. Duration of hypotension before initiation of effective antimicrobial therapy is the critical determinant of survival in human septic shock. Crit Care Med. 2006;34(6):1589-1596. doi:10.1097/01.CCM.0000217961.75225.E9
  16. Fleischmann-Struzek C, Rudd K. Challenges of assessing the burden of sepsis. Med Klin Intensivmed Notfmed. 2023;118(2):68-74. doi:10.1007/S00063-023-01088-7/FIGURES/2
  17. Lopansri BK, Miller RR, Burke JP, et al. Physician agreement on the diagnosis of sepsis in the intensive care unit: estimation of concordance and analysis of underlying factors in a multicenter cohort. J Intensive Care. 2019;7(1). doi:10.1186/S40560-019-0368-2
  18. John E. Schneider, Catharina Boehme, Bettina Borisch & Sabine Dittrich
    (2020) Application of a simple point-of-care test to reduce UK healthcare costs and adverse
    events in outpatient acute respiratory infections, Journal of Medical Economics, 23:7, 673-682,
    DOI: 10.1080/13696998.2020.1736872

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