To begin with a roll out of 10,000 tests in NCR from December first week, followed by phased national roll-out
Apollo Hospitals Group and Tata Medical and Diagnostics (Tata MD) have collaborated to introduce TataMD CHECK, the world’s first CRISPR Cas-9 based diagnostic test, to help increase testing for COVID-19 across the country.
Apollo Hospitals, along with its subsidiary, Apollo Diagnostics will offer the Tata MD CHECK testing in the National Capital Region from the first week of December and shortly thereafter, it will be rolled out across all major centres, namely Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Pune, followed by a second phase into other cities. Apollo Hospitals Group becomes the first healthcare institution in the country to adopt the test.
TataMD CHECK, powered by FELUDA, is the world’s first COVID-19 diagnostic test based on the DNA genome editing tool CRISPR Cas-9. The FELUDA diagnostic technology platform has been developed by Institute of Genomics & Integrative Biology (CSIR- IGIB).
TataMD CHECK has been approved by Indian Council of Medical Research and Drug Controller General of India (DCGI). It is a viral detection test with high accuracy and a quick result turnaround time. Apollo Hospitals Group is the first healthcare institution in the country to adopt the test.
This significant tie-up with Apollo Hospitals kicks off the efforts of TataMD Check to align with healthcare institutions including hospitals, diagnostic chains and other healthcare facilities.
During the next few weeks, Apollo Hospitals group will ensure the availability of TataMD Check testing in eight hospitals in phase 1 and the location-wise quantities will be ramped up based on the demand and need for expanding this to other centres.
The primary care clinics and diagnostics lab and collection centre network of Apollo Diagnostics and the Apollo Health & Lifestyle network, with over 100 Clinics, 75 Labs and over 600 collection centres in 15 states across the country, will be progressively utilised as needed to enhance the reach and convenience to patients.
Tata MD will help train the key diagnostic clinicians and staff at Apollo Hospitals and Apollo Diagnostics on new technology and effective testing protocols in the next few weeks. TataMD Check is expected to help deliver quicker results and higher throughput of testing volumes as there are no minimum batch sizes limitations. Continuous quality control of kits using sensors as well AI-based result capture and analysis tool will help laboratories with image-based results, with full traceability of the sample and results that are accessible anywhere resulting in an enhanced patient experience.