3M Health Care Launches Medical Diagnostics Business

A new medical diagnostics business unit has been launched by 3M Health Care (St. Paul, MN, USA). The new unit will focus on developing and commercializing rapid diagnostic product systems for the detection of key infectious pathogens, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and other treatment-resistant microbes.

This new business builds on 3M Health Care's leading infection prevention product portfolio by offering hospitals new rapid diagnostic tests to detect the presence of potentially destructive microbes before they spread and possibly infect patients. 3M Medical Diagnostics will provide hospitals with rapid, easy-to-use microbial diagnostic tests that may help improve patient outcomes, reduce costs, reduce the impact of resistant microbes, and improve laboratory profitability. "We see many market trends pointing to the need for rapid, easy-to-use microbial diagnostics that will aid in the prevention and control of infections in hospitals in the U.S. and abroad,” said Angela Dillow, Ph.D., global business manager, 3M Medical Diagnostics.

For example, in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC; Atlanta, GA, USA) estimate that approximately 90,000 deaths annually are attributable to hospital-acquired (nosocomial) infections. New guidelines were issued by the CDC in October 2006 outlining strategies to prevent the spread of drug-resistant infections in healthcare settings. The screening of patients at high risk for carrying drug-resistant bacteria was recommended for healthcare facilities that do not improve their healthcare-associated infection (HCAI) rates.

In the United States, current infection prevention patient screening activities include no screening at all, traditional cultures, which provide results in 48 hours, or expensive molecular diagnostics. 3M plans to introduce new rapid diagnostic products that will simplify the diagnostic testing process and provide more rapid results than traditional microbiology tests for the detection of key microbes such as S. aureus, MRSA, and Influenza A and B.

3M's rapid diagnostic tests, expected in 2007, will allow physicians to make informed medical decisions on behalf of their patients while hospital labs will be able to reduce the amount of hands-on time conducting these tests, which may lead to reduced healthcare costs and improved laboratory profitability.

A prevalence survey conducted under the auspices of the World Health Organization (WHO; Geneva, Switzerland) in 55 hospitals of 14 countries representing four WHO Regions (Europe, Eastern Mediterranean, South-East Asia, and Western Pacific) showed an average of 8.7% of hospital patients had nosocomial infections. At any time, over 1.4 million people worldwide suffer from infectious complications acquired in hospitals.


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