Health-care innovations to drive down local costs
Monday, February 3, 2014
A diagnostic kit that can detect tuberculosis (TB) in 25 minutes, diagnosis of diabetes using a dipstick and a doctor consultation that can be capped at R50. These are just a few of the health-care innovations that South African medical researchers and companies have up their sleeves, and are planning to introduce to the health-care system in their bid to drive down costs.
Regarding the TB diagnostic device, Richard Gordon, the director of strategic health innovation partnerships at the Medical Research Council (MRC), said early indications were that it would be about half the price of GeneXpert, the only other automated diagnostic test for TB.
According to the Treatment Action Campaign, each GeneXpert cartridge cost $120 (about R1 330) in 2012 while the machine cost $62 000.
Source: Business Report (link opens in a new window)
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