Pricing, Language and Logistics to be the Major Challenge in the Diagnostics Sector

At Diagnostics summit 2019 presented by BW Healthcareworld, Dr A Velumani, Chairman, Managing Director & CEO, Thyrocare discussed the top 3 challenges in the diagnostics sector.

Diagnostic industry is a homogeneous region with the length and strength of national laboratories and the need for laboratories in the hospitals. With value and volume, it is both, business to business and business to consumers.

Now, Pathological laboratories have a restaurant and kitchen, one is where we entertain people and the other where we test the specimens. But we look ahead for a centralized kitchen to be a common hub for the specimens.

Talking about the first challenges he said, “Factors like pricing and costing are interdependent. If the pricing goes wrong, the cost gets affected that eventually influences the volume.

Another challenge is the language barrier. Though the technicians are well trained in their job they do not speak the common a language that creates the gap between the service provider and the receiver. Also, there’s a need for more biochemists and pathologists if compared with the number of engineers in the field.

Now the patient wishes to have their reports as soon as possible. They are expecting the delivery of the report like any other food delivery. With the emergence of the internet revolution, people do compare every available service and they want all of them to be equally good. They even expect discounts on healthcare services. Such urgency in the demands by the service provider forces them to upgrade the available system in the industry.

Lastly, he talked about the need and importance of logistics in diagnostics. He said, “Sending the specimens to the laboratories on time is necessary. There are certain tests that are required to be performed within a given time frame, for such tests, we do need to have a better system to reduce the chances of hampering specimens and testing the same.”