Cepheid, a leading molecular diagnostics company, announced the delivery of the 10,000th GeneXpert System to the 10 Hammersmith Broadway Clinic in London, England.
The Hammersmith Clinic is the first in a series of new clinics developed by the same team behind the innovative Dean Street Express clinic located in London's Soho district that has been transforming the model for STD testing and public health since it first opened in February 2014. Dean Street Express, 10 Hammersmith Broadway and the additional planned clinics offer drop-in service and on-site testing, with results delivered to patients within hours, rather than days, for a number of STDs, including CT/NG, HIV, and syphilis. Dean Street Express has adopted Cepheid's GeneXpert Infinity System to enable rapid, on-site testing for CT/NG using patient-collected specimens. Unlike more traditional molecular systems that can only be operated at centralised testing locations with highly skilled lab technicians, the GeneXpert System allows lab-quality, complex molecular tests to be completed at the point-of-care, in this case with Cepheid's unique, high-volume GeneXpert Infinity System.
"Dean Street has challenged the way we all think about the delivery of diagnostic tests and the workflow and management of important diagnostic results," said John Bishop, Cepheid's chairman and chief executive officer. "As a result, the overall patient experience is dramatically improved, and those patients who need it are started on appropriate therapies faster. I'm very pleased to see the proliferation of this transformational approach to sexual healthcare, and proud to be installing our 10,000th GeneXpert system at the new Hammersmith Clinic."
"We have been thrilled with the response to the Dean Street Clinic, and have been able to test more patients and diagnose more STDs, in part due to the GeneXpert system's quality, speed, and ease-of-use that enables same-day, non-intrusive STD testing," said James Beckett, divisional director of operations at the Chelsea and Westminster Trust.
"Cepheid is an important partner as we extend our innovative approach into Hammersmith and other new locations in London, offering an exciting opportunity, not just for the UK but for sexual health globally, to improve diagnosis of STIs and to encourage people to screen regularly. We firmly believe that all patients should be able to access sexual health services in this way."
The new Hammersmith site is scheduled to open in April 2016, to be followed by additional clinics later this year.
With more than 10,000 systems in 182 countries, the GeneXpert System is the world's most popular molecular diagnostics' instrument. The GeneXpert System's modular configuration means that the system is the most scalable available, offering the ability to perform from one to eighty Xpert tests at the same time. As a result, the GeneXpert System meets the throughput requirements of customers of all sizes - from lower volume point-of-care settings to higher volume reference laboratories - enabling accurate, fast and cost effective test results.
GeneXpert Systems run proprietary Xpert test cartridges. The Xpert test menu spans healthcare-associated infections, sexual health, critical infectious disease, and oncology, and today offers 23 tests outside the US, and 19 tests in the US.