On the bright side

Imagine if we could better diagnose disease at its earliest stage, with just a simple test that delivers accurate results in just over an hour.

By analysing and identifying biological changes, doctors could more quickly understand a patient’s condition, and create a personalised treatment programme to optimise the patient’s chances of recovery.

This is no longer in the realm of science fiction. We are now able to harness the power of mass spectrometry and make it part of the routine clinical laboratory, enabling proactive, precision healthcare.

As healthcare systems around the world face the challenges of ageing populations and the growing prevalence of illnesses such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, stroke and diabetes, the role of diagnostics in addressing these challenges is frequently overlooked.

We know that the earlier patients are accurately diagnosed, the greater their chance of living longer and healthier lives.

Additionally, increased constraints on healthcare budgets combined with an ageing population is placing immense pressure on clinical laboratories, requiring them to do more with fewer resources. The current system is not sustainable for patients, healthcare staff, or healthcare systems as a whole.

If we want better outcomes we need a different approach. We need sustainable, accessible and cost-efficient solutions that enable us to move from ‘sick care’ to ‘healthcare’ in its truest sense.

Early detection and proactive disease management maximises the probability of better health outcomes, and to do that, we need the right tools and technology in place.

Mass spectrometry has played a significant role in the clinical laboratory for decades, providing a robust means to precisely identify and quantify compounds in human biological samples.

The technology is well known for its exceptional sensitivity, specificity and accuracy, and is considered a ‘gold standard’ for certain clinical situations in measuring compounds like steroid hormones and vitamin D, and monitoring immunosuppressants and therapeutic drugs.

With the highly precise insights provided by mass spectroscopy, healthcare professionals gain a better understanding of a patient’s health status.

This enables them to tailor treatment approaches to the individual, improving the chances of response and minimising adverse effects.

For example, in women with hormone receptor positive breast cancer, oestradiol plays a critical role in driving tumour growth.

Measuring levels of oestradiol can offer valuable insights into how a patient is responding to hormone therapy, during the five to ten years she will be receiving treatment.

This allows doctors to make informed adjustments to treatment, ultimately reducing the risk of recurrence.

While traditional immunoassays face challenges at a lower concentration level, mass spectrometry offers reliable monitoring that contributes to improving patient outcomes.

Yet despite its undisputed value, mass spectrometry remains largely underused. The standard technologies used in laboratories today have low levels of automation and standardisation, relying on manual processing by highly qualified specialists.

This not only takes up considerable time and resources but also poses the challenge of potential variations in results produced by different laboratories and methods.

These limitations have put off many laboratories from adding mass spectrometry to their services.

However, a new wave of technological innovations in mass spectrometry is emerging, with the potential to revolutionise how this technology is used to diagnose and treat certain diseases in the future.

Multiple innovations – such as new automated mass spectrometry solutions – are helping to fundamentally transform routine laboratory testing by automating and simplifying workflows that traditionally would have been done manually and by highly skilled technicians, improving productivity and efficiency.

Resources can be freed up, and laboratory personnel can deliver rapid and accurate analysis of large numbers of samples, speeding up the time in which doctors receive results and make vital decisions about treatment for their patients.

Additionally, by fully automating mass spectrometry testing, it is possible to address the significant skilled labour crisis facing the clinical laboratory.

By enabling more laboratories to benefit from the precise and accurate results this technology delivers, automated and standardised mass spectrometry has the potential to revolutionise access to this type of testing for patients worldwide.

These technologies carry benefits across the spectrum: the sooner patients receive the right therapeutic intervention, typically the better their prognosis and recovery. And the better their recovery, the fewer resources are needed to look after them.

While there are undoubtedly significant challenges ahead, harnessing technology and improving our laboratory infrastructure presents an opportunity to reduce the burden of disease on society.

These latest advances offer a transformative opportunity to reshape our approach to healthcare today, putting early detection and personalisation at the heart of population health, and equipping healthcare systems to tackle the health challenges we face in the decades ahead.

Matt Sause is CEO at Roche Diagnostics. Go to diagnostics.roche.com