The Covid pandemic taught us that rapid and reliable tests at low cost are key to future prevention and control of transmissible diseases. High throughput testing for many upper respiratory tract pathogens is now possible, using automation technology.
Fast MDx is the first fully automated, high-throughput, near-patient testing system. It can detect many pathogens with unrivalled speed without the need for expensive biosecure laboratories. Developed by London-based social enterprise company Fast MDx, the eponymous testing system cuts the typical 24 to 48 hour waiting time to just one to two hours.
“The Fast MDx test platform is mobile and can be used anywhere,” explains Richard Lewis, founder and CEO of Fast MDx. “Only one technician is required to operate it, rather than the five normally needed in a central laboratory to process up to 1,000 patient samples in an 8-hour shift.”
Thanks mainly to economies of scale, Fast MDx is the first system in the world to make molecular testing and diagnostics accessible everywhere, not just in more affluent countries. It will be launchedwith a multiplexed, CE-IVDr-approved test for the most common respiratory pathogens: influenza A, influenza B, RSV A, RSV B and Covid-19. The company will be expanding the range of tests in 2023/24 to include tests for infections such as C-Diff and MRSA, as well as for sepsis, which kills about 11 million people worldwide every year. It is also the perfect system for conducting genomic testing, which informs doctors what screening tests to request based on their patients’ own DNA, in order to detect hereditary diseases at an early stage.
