Sentiments Surrounding At-Home Diagnostic Testing

PC: ixlayer recently released the results of a new survey that unveiled insights into provider attitudes toward at-home diagnostic testing in healthcare. Could you describe the process that went into designing the survey itself?

Walsh: What ixdoes does is serve as a technology platform that builds direct-to-patient experiences that facilitate remote testing and connection to care, and we mostly do that on behalf of pharmaceutical companies. Many of the questions that we get are, when you talk about home testing or remote testing programs, how are physicians receiving these—because we ultimately want patients to take these test results, bring them to their doctors, and get the care that they need—and we also get questions about what the landscape is, and the point of view of providers when it comes to home testing, and so that's really what inspired some of the research that we've done. So we partnered with serve Sermo, and we went out to over 100 physicians across specialties, and we asked them some of the most common questions that we were receiving—to understand—what is the landscape of provider attitudes around remote testing and home testing, how they're thinking about it, how they're receiving it, and how it's working in their workflow.

PC: What results do you believe are most beneficial for the industry to be aware of?

Walsh: I think number one, it was a good learning to know that doctors believe in these home tests, and that they're reliable. Two-thirds of physicians that responded believe that the tests are reliable, and I think there's been a whole explosion of home testing since COVID. So there's definitely a lot of things on the market. There are a lot of good governing bodies that make sure that these tests align with laboratory tests that you would get in a lab.

But it’s important just to understand the providers’ perspective on where we've come since COVID, where everybody is comfortable with home tests. There’s been a variety of home tests that have been launched. How do doctors feel about these home tests when they a patient shows up in their office having taken a home test? I think the majority says that they believe these tests are reliable, so that’s really encouraging. And the other thing is, an even greater percentage believe that it supported or enhanced their current provider workflow. I that is because they're convenient and they're really activating patients to take action about their own health. I think the the more that patients can be proactive about going to the doctor and doing research on their own health will ultimately help everyone. It’s nice to see the doctors agree that when patients are coming and being proactive about their health, it's helpful and not unhelpful.