NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – ID Genomics said today that it has formed a national consortium of clinical partners with the objective of improving the speed and accuracy of infectious disease diagnostics and antibiotic treatment.
The firm will work with partners in the consortium to record genetic fingerprints of antibiotic strains isolated from patients with active infections, and to characterize the strains' antibiotic susceptibility.
The work will expand ID Genomics' database and the test's diagnostic accuracy, the firm said, and added that the database will also provide localized data insights for clinical partners, highlighting unusual patterns of drug resistance or infectious disease outbreaks.
The firm's rapid diagnostic test, CloNet, assigns unique microbial DNA fingerprints to reveal the clonal identity of a bacterial strain in patient samples. A database, BactNet, links fingerprints identified by the rapid diagnostic test with responses to commonly prescribed antibiotics.
Healthcare professionals can use the test and database to prescribe the most optimal antibiotic for a patient within half an hour compared to 48 hours, which is now the norm, ID Genomics said.
Each fingerprint link in the BactNet database tracks the medical history of different bacterial strains locally, nationwide, or globally, Evgeni Sokurenko, ID Genomics' founder said in a statement.
"This resource enables doctors to quickly and accurately recommend treatment plans, helping to save the lives of thousands of patients and reduce billions in medical costs associated with antibiotic resistance," he added.
The firm said that its technology has been shown to reduce the rate of empiric antibiotic treatment errors from around 30 percent in some clinical categories to less than 5 percent.
In addition to guiding the appropriate treatment regimen, BactNet can provide real-time epidemiological surveillance that is expected to track the spread and emergence of new and existing drug-resistant superbugs, the firm said.
The consortium of clinical partners was formed under a grant from National Institutes of Health and includes the Group Health Cooperative, Seattle Children's Research Institute, and Harborview Medical Center in Seattle; Los Angeles County Medical Center and Keck Medical Center of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles; NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City; and Hennepin County and Veterans Affairs Medical Centers in Minneapolis.
ID Genomics said that it is seeking additional clinics, labs, and healthcare providers to join the initiative.