Diagnostics are the most important tools that empower the health workforce in the identification of diseases or health conditions. They allow the initiation of treatments in order to avoid further complications and costly treatments for patients.
Diagnostic services are vital for the prevention, screening, diagnosis, case management, monitoring and treatment or surveillance of communicable, noncommunicable, neglected tropical and rare diseases, injuries and disabilities. Therefore, equitable access to safe, effective and quality assured diagnostics requires a comprehensive health-systems approach that addresses all stages of the access value chain.
The term diagnostics includes medical devices, techniques and procedures used for in vitro and in vivo determination of physiological status or presence and characteristics of a disease. Examples of in vitro diagnostics include laboratory tests (such as blood or urine tests); in vivo diagnostics include imaging tests (such as chest radiography, mammography or pelvic ultrasound) and other type of tests such as thermometer, electrocardiogram, pulse oximeters, endoscopes or blood pressure measurement devices. The simplest ones can be self-used, such as pregnancy tests, while others require important infrastructure and a specialized health workforce, like CT scanners.