Traditionally, diagnostic assays have been used to provide a prompt indication of a causal factor that results in ill-health. In general, such assays are applied in the human health and agricultural sectors with successful results. For instance, the rapid HIV assay available at primary health care clinics provides a cost-effective and reliable mechanism of screening the general population for HIV positive patients.

Likewise, assays in the agricultural sector for the identification of conditions also enables a rapid response to potential epidemics. Employers in the mining, construction and agricultural sectors have used these diagnostics assays to provide health care services to their employees or to screen their livestock to prevent substantial financial losses.

However, the implementation of such diagnostic assays has ignored the use of economic assessment methods that add value to the results generated by the assay. Diagnostic assays produce results which are used to confirm an immediate diagnosis, but seldom are these results captured, pooled and subsequently analysed with economic assessment methods.

For instance, a rapid assay for HIV is cheaper and more cost-effective than a laboratory-based Western Blot Test or Elisa Test. Although the latter are recommended as confirmatory tests, they are not always available particularly in resource-constrained developing countries in Africa. A socially responsible firm in the mining, construction and agricultural sectors should routinely offer HIV screening services for its employees. If the results of this screening service were captured, blinded and pooled, much could be done to generate economic models that assist the employer to better manage HIV within their workforce.

Economic models could be used to compare different interventions to manage HIV, both now and in the future. Modifying the parameters in the economic model enables the employer to build scenarios based on their predictions of what is mostly probable in the future. Economic models also empower the management team to make informed decisions with integrated monitoring indicators which track the fluctuations of the costs of providing health services and the health status of their workforce.

At RapidDiscovery sophisticated economic models are custom-made for employers in order to add value to the diagnostic assays within its portfolio. Our economic assessment methods enable the employer to:

• evaluate different options for managing a disease,

• build scenarios that minimizes long-term business risk,

• and, integrate operational management tools that monitor costs and health status of the workforce.

Economic assessment methods add value to diagnostic assays.