Diseases like tuberculosis, AIDS, and other illnesses are continuing to wreak havoc in our world today. Millions of people die yearly, posing a threat to areas of Africa, Latin America, Asia and other parts of the globe. Factors that may help improve the health of many would include better nutrition and helping people to have better access to clinics for care, along with diagnostics for treating diseases.
Unfortunately, most diagnostic tools are not available in a lot of developing countries because they’re too costly to purchase. The RAND Corporation is researching how more diagnostic testing can improve the overall health in underdeveloped countries for numerous kinds of diseases.
Having the necessary diagnostic tools is vital but rarely used when evaluating and improving health. Diagnostics is needed to identify and detect disease and what is causing it to determine the correct types of treatment. Accurately diagnosing a patient can help reduce unnecessary treatments and get them on the road to recovery much faster for people who are in need of it by using easy to use tools for diagnosing.
Diagnostic tools are also needed for pregnant women. Fetal dopplers are very important diagnostic tools used by obstetricians. A fetal doppler is an ultrasound device that uses sound waves to detect a baby’s heartbeat from inside the mother’s uterus, allowing the OB/GYN physician and the mother to hear the sound of the baby’s heart. This procedure is normally done during the woman’s first trimester of pregnancy. Giving the mother and the doctor assurance that the fetal heartbeat is normal.
The Huge Demand for Diagnostic Tools
RAND is working together with the Gates Foundation to form a worldwide diagnostics forum, bringing experts and representatives from the diagnostics society, along with other professionals in the field to demonstrate the benefits of diagnostic tools.
The large increase in deaths among people in developing countries with these kinds of diseases is the result of the lack of diagnostic procedures.
Many sophisticated diagnostic tools are made to be used in well-established countries and, therefore, are usually too complex for use in undeveloped parts of the world.
Diagnostic testing usually makes it necessary for patients to come back to the clinic in a day or so to get their test results. That can be a difficult task to do for people that live in poor countries.
Overuse of the treatment of antibiotics can result in the patient becoming immune to the medicine. There has been increased deaths because of this issue. RAND demonstrations show the health benefits of new diagnostic tools. These tools can determine what kinds of testing would be needed for patients by proving how accurate the diagnostic testing tools need to be. They also have to consider the type of environment the patients live in to administer the test that is required.
Improving the precision of diagnostic tools is vital. The research has found that it is necessary to develop tests that can be performed without any infrastructure such as:
1. Clean water
2. A laboratory
3. Trained staff
4. Electricity
The testing that is required in an advanced infrastructure does not benefit the poorer nations. In fact, these kinds of tests save a very low number of lives in these countries. Research has discovered that many of the benefits of using new diagnostic tools have resulted in a reduction of overtreating patients with antibiotics. New testing tools are usually an improvement in discovering a patient with a disease. They can then accurately treat the person to eliminate the condition or get it under control when it is realized that a person was inaccurately diagnosed.
When new and more precise diagnostic testing tools are implemented, it will be necessary to make sure that all health care staff and professionals are well-trained on how to use the diagnostic testing tools and educate patients on how it is beneficial to them to use these new testing tools.
The research has shown that developing and implementing new diagnostic testing tools for those living in underdeveloped countries does benefit a person’s overall health. Using these new tests can save millions of lives.
