Past Events

Transforming Diagnostic Access & Adoption: A Roadmap for ASEAN

As the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed, diagnostics play a critical role in screening, diagnosing and containing the spread of the disease. In fact, prior to the pandemic, the World Health Organisation (WHO) emphasised the importance of diagnostics, advocating for the creation of the Essential Diagnostics List (EDL) to enable countries to detect and better manage key diseases within a nation. Despite their rallying call, diagnostics has persistently been undervalued. It has consistently remained the biggest gap in the cascade of care, suffering from low visibility despite its value in a holistic approach to healthcare.

Harnessing on the spotlight and momentum the pandemic has given diagnostics, this launch webinar will discuss the current state-of-play of diagnostics across the region. Experts will share their insights on how the introduction of diagnostics; and the raising of standards for testing capability, can aid ASEAN member states to: provide clinical benefits to patients; reduce operational costs for healthcare providers; enable rapid and appropriate clinical response for healthcare professionals and economic efficiencies gains for healthcare systems. All in all, develop a resilient healthcare system to battle existing diseases and, better equip ourselves for future pandemics.

The webinar will discuss the following:

  1. What has been the progress of diagnostics over the years; and how has COVID-19 changed the landscape of diagnostics?
  2. What are the current gaps across ASEAN in terms of the diagnostic capability? How does the implementation of diagnostics help ASEAN member states build resilience in their healthcare systems; and achieve the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) goals?
  3. What are the challenges in developing diagnostics capability across the region?
  4. What forms of partnership can be forged between public-private sector to minimise the existing gaps?
  5. Should ASEAN look towards creating a regional diagnostics list that aims to collectively address the top medical conditions across the region?