The latest edition of The Biomedical Science Industry Handbook is now available, both in print and digital format (see link at the end of this feature), providing concise yet comprehensive information on the full range of products and services across the in vitro diagnostics (IVD) industry spectrum, from point -of-care testing (POCT) to the very latest advances in molecular biology.
The full range of services and technologies available to the medical laboratory was on show at the IBMS Biomedical Science Congress, held at the International Convention Centre, Birmingham, last September. In effect, the associated exhibition was a virtual metamorphosis of this compendium into three-dimensional space, providing visitors with the opportunity to interact with, and learn from, representative of the companies present. This revised handbook reflects the expertise available across the IVD industry, which, to paraphrase the author Charles Dickens, illustrates the best of times, an age of wisdom, and an epoch of belief. However, according to American author John Naisbitt, “The more high tech we have, the more high touch we will want”. This view is consistent with the increasing move towards, and reliance on, POCT. In this respect, the IVD industry has been at the forefront of the drive to bring diagnostic testing to the patient in order to facilitate better, more immediate care.
Increasingly, there are those companies, technologies and tests that are vital to the development of an expanding molecular biology service that supports genomic medicine and the move towards personalised medicine. Technology is evolving and has come far since the early 1980s when Kary Banks Mullis made the intellectual leap that ultimately resulted in the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) becoming the basis for a range of medical laboratory tests. Professor Mullis, who died in 2019, received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1993, for contributions to the developments of methods within DNA-based chemistry.
Whether at the point of care or in the traditional laboratory setting, pathology and the IVD industry continue to reap the rewards of a collaborative approach, as evidenced by the wide range of inclusions in this vital compendium of commercial expertise.
https://content.yudu.com/web/1u0jl/0A1v7oc/PiPbsi20/index.html
