Transforming access to diagnostics

A Lancet Commission on diagnostics chaired by Emeritus Fellow Dr Kenneth Fleming has published a major report on transforming access to diagnostics.

Kenneth chaired the Commission for three years leading to the launch of its findings in Geneva on 7 October 2021. They found that 47% of the global population has little to no access to diagnostics; although central and fundamental to quality health care, diagnostics are under-recognised; and that the economic case for increasing investment is strong. Overall the Commission made a powerful case regarding the implications for global health care.

Read the full report

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown acutely that diagnostic capacity in a country is directly linked to the ability to respond to the pandemic with appropriate public health measures and to monitor emerging variants. There is an urgent need to strengthen diagnostics for future pandemic preparedness but also beyond pandemics. Diagnostics are central to an accurate diagnosis of communicable and non-communicable diseases, to guide therapy, monitor progress, and assess response to treatment.

Kenneth said of the work, ‘I first became aware of the global problem of poor diagnostics capacity in about 2008. The Commission is the culmination of my work and that of many colleagues since then. Globally about nine times as much is spent on medicines as on diagnostics, yet the best medicine is useless if used for the wrong condition. Without good diagnostics, the aims of Universal Health Coverage are unachievable.”

Watch video on 10 recommendations on how to transform access to diagnostics around the world.

Dr Kenneth Fleming has been an Emeritus Fellow of Green Templeton College for a decade, having previously been a Governing Body Fellow for nearly thirty years. He is an academic pathologist and was Head of the Oxford Medical Sciences Division from 2000 to 2008.