NEW YORK – The Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) and the World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday announced a new effort to improve access to diagnostics in resource-poor countries, and to support expanded disease surveillance.
Initially, FIND and the WHO will work to develop national essential diagnostics lists, as well as to collect data to support countries in their aim to provide universal health coverage. The collaboration is currently set to run through 2025.
FIND is a Geneva, Switzerland-based nonprofit focused on developing tests for poverty-related diseases. The organization has been a WHO partner since 2008. CEO Catherine Boehme said in a statement that FIND will work closely with the WHO going forward to "ensure that low- and middle-income countries have what they need to develop their own comprehensive, data-driven diagnostic strategies that enable universal health coverage and empower disease surveillance."
The WHO, also based in Geneva, regularly provides lists of essential in vitro diagnostics to help countries identify the most common diseases and diseases that the organization has given global priority status. The WHO last provided an update to its list of essential IVDs last June.