Our role in testing and diagnostics

Our tests, instruments and digital solutions enable healthcare professionals to make critical decisions for their patients earlier, more accurately, and with greater confidence.

The quest to prevent, tackle and effectively treat healthcare’s greatest challenges starts with, and depends on, testing and diagnosis.

In vitro diagnostics (IVDs) are tests that can detect disease, conditions and infections from samples such as blood or tissue that have been taken from the human body. They help clinicians to diagnose patients effectively and work to provide timely and appropriate treatments. We develop and manufacture in vitro tests for the diagnosis of various diseases including cancer, diabetes, heart failure, hepatitis, human papillomavirus (HPV), Alzheimer's disease and many others.

Most of our in vitro tests run on diagnostic instruments that we develop and manufacture ourselves or with external partners. Some of these devices are small and can analyse a patient’s blood or urine at the bedside or community settings. Other instruments are large, some the size of small cars, and are on-site at hospital laboratories. These systems analyse hundreds of samples in parallel, testing for many different diseases.

We have developed a broad portfolio of digital solutions that support specialists in their diagnostic work. This includes artificial intelligence used by pathologists in the interpretation of tissue samples and solutions that support doctors in their clinical decision-making, by employing algorithms and artificial intelligence to suggest targeted and personalised treatment options. 

Every person’s health journey begins with a test or diagnosis, and many of our tests, instruments and digital solutions are used every day across the NHS to confirm, rule out or manage health conditions. They enable healthcare professionals to make critical decisions for their patients earlier, more accurately, and with greater confidence, and help patients get the right treatment faster.

In addition to providing tests, instruments, and digital solutions to help diagnose and manage diseases, our products are used in screening programmes across the UK. For example, our tests are used in cervical screening programmes to detect Human Papillomavirus (HPV), a leading cause of cervical cancer, and to deliver a fast and accurate diagnosis of HIV infection. 

More than 650 dedicated colleagues make all this happen. They are based at our office, our National Distribution Centre (both located in Burgess Hill, West Sussex), or in the field across the UK and Ireland, close to our customers. Our technical teams ensure that our instruments and analysers are installed quickly, well-maintained and kept running accurately.