Personalised health care

“The genetic revolution created an exciting field of laboratory medicine based on analysing human genes to better understand diseases, how they develop, and the most effective ways to treat them. Today molecular diagnostics is a game changer for clinical laboratories of all sizes, offering more powerful tools for earlier and more accurate detection of disease and giving laboratories a key role in the emerging field of personalised medicine,” it said, (http://www.mlo-online.com/) Fast forward years later and molecular diagnostics has become an integral part of modern medicine. It is said that this branch of medical science assists physicians with more precise treatment for patients.

In TT, one such laboratory leading the way in more personal health care is NexGen Pathology located at the Eastern Main Road, San Juan.

The medical diagnostic laboratory was founded in 2012 by Dr Wesley Greaves who in turn has put together a core team to assist him in more accurate diagnoses here in TT.

The company’s scientific director, Dr Christina Pierre discussed the lab’s origins and the role it hopes to play in health care development in TT. One of its core mission is to make world-class medical diagnostics available to TT and the wider region.

The PhD molecular biologist said the lab’s overall goal is to raise the standard of diagnostics in TT. The PhD holder-who holds an undergraduate degree in Biomedical Sciences from University of Waterloo, Ontario Canada and then a PhD from McMaster University, Ontario, Canada in molecular and cell biology. While this country has the expertise, she said, it lacked the capacity needed to truly get the field up and running.

It was, she said, fairly nascent in TT. However, its importance to the development of medicine in TT and beyond was integral. She said, “You would find that, often times, when people become ill, particularly with cancer, they seek to go abroad so they get the best in care and the most advanced testing there is available.

“We would really like to bring that testing to TT and make it widely available and accessible. We offer it at a price that is not prohibitive so people don’t feel the need to leave TT to go and have this testing done.” She defined diagnostic as the ability to detect diseases but also the ability to classify the disease and guide a particular course of treatment.

“A lot of what we do also involves screening. Having an accurate diagnosis and a very fast diagnosis, depending on how critical the case is can make a difference between life and death, so it is important that we have accurate diagnostics but when it comes to cancer treatment sometimes diagnostic or prognostic tests can determine the course of treatment for the patient or whether or not they will respond to a particular drug or not,” she added.

She said that it was important because, “Having the ability to do that type of diagnostic testing and a lot of cancers are driven by mutations in particular genes and then those mutations, or the presence or absence, of those mutations would dictate whether or not a patient would respond to particular medication or a particular course of treatment.” The lab, while it is for profit, she said, also did a lot of work at a reduced cost or pro-bono. “It is not that we are a not-forprofit organisation but we believe in being fair and we try to put people before profit as much as possible.

That is one of our core values. There are instances where we would heavily discount a test for a patient that comes from the public sector but needs a test done urgently and may not be able to afford it through the private sector and can’t afford to wait on the public sector to get the results. So we have many cases whereby patients would come in and say you know this is prohibitive for us and we would either discount it heavily or do it pro-bono depending on the case. The idea is not that we are a not-for-profit but we don’t want anyone who really needs testing not to be able to get it in the time that they need it done because of cost.” The lab, she said, has reduced the cost of HPV (Human Papilloma Virus) testing for $600 whereas if it had to be done abroad it would have cost upwards of $2,000.

Molecular diagnostic testing, Pierre said, could also be an economic earner for the country. The lab has already had regional clients with patients from Guyana coming over for testing.

The lab plans to keep abreast of the latest development in its field. “We are also bringing on another platform and we are going to be establishing it so that we can do a lot more of the genetic testing or looking for mutations in genes or looking for the presence or absence of other pathogens that are disease causing such as Zika, dengue, Chick V, that kind of thing,” she said.

The lab is currently attempting to get accreditation from the College of American Pathologists, “to ensure [we] keep in line with international best practices.”