Roche Diagnostics India & CAHO launch benchmarking survey for lab practice

New Delhi: Roche Diagnostics India has partnered with the Consortium of Accredited Healthcare Organisations (CAHO) to redefine laboratory practices in India by initiating a benchmarking study and conducting an upskilling programme for laboratories in the country.

CAHO members include healthcare institutions, diagnostic centres and quality professionals and works to promote patient safety through training for healthcare professionals.

The partnership will benchmark diagnostics practices not just at individual lab level but also at an international level to understand where Indian labs stand in terms of quality, productivity, costs, patient experience and clinical value generated which are considered as the pillars of excellent patient care. The partnership will include CAHO member labs to participate in the benchmarking survey, co-publish benchmarks on speed, quality and cost as well as productivity metrics, use these benchmarks to improve care in terms of operational and business indicators, and conduct upskilling programmes.

As part of this partnership, CAHO will help spread knowledge and increase participation in Lab Benchmarking Survey through Roche Diagnostics’ Lab Insights platform for the clinical laboratory community. The platform has over 3000 subscribed laboratories from across 20 countries. It provides insights from various benchmarking surveys, case studies and thought leadership content from global healthcare experts.

It is expected that over 100 labs of various sizes will participate in the survey through the CAHO network. The results of the benchmarking survey will be presented at the Annual CAHOCON on April 13-14, 2023 as part of a whitepaper highlighting 30 key indicators that define quality and effective laboratory outcomes.

Going forward, CAHO will design an upskilling programme on advanced laboratory management concepts with Roche Diagnostics as knowledge partner.

The training programme will focus on capability building based on right structural and operational training, best practices in diagnostics pathways to improve accuracy, increase productivity and reduce cost in healthcare delivery.

Dr Vijay Agarwal, President, CAHO said, “At CAHO, we are constantly working towards continuous quality improvement, patient safety and capacity building in the arena of healthcare delivery. We are extremely excited about our partnership with Roche Diagnostics India that brings a unique and one-of-its kind benchmarking survey that will enable laboratories to learn best practices in clinical diagnostics through peer-to-peer global knowledge sharing.”

Adding to this, Dr Lallu Joseph, Secretary General, CAHO, informed, “We are confident that labs that participate in this survey will have an exclusive opportunity to enhance their clinical lab capabilities related to quality assurance, accreditation, continuous improvement, IT infrastructure, turnaround time, laboratory setup and productivity.”

Narendra Varde, Managing Director, Roche Diagnostics India and Neighboring Markets, commented, “The Lab Insights benchmarking survey gives a perfect opportunity for evidence-based learning that focuses on four major parameters – improvement in lab management, upskilling bench scientists, providing access to global best practices and facilitating labs in India to align with global standards. At Roche Diagnostics, we are passionately working towards fortifying India’s healthcare system and our partnership with CAHO is an effort to improve laboratory capabilities and upskill lab experts to be ready for the everchanging diagnostics landscape.”

By participating in the Lab Insights benchmarking survey, clinical labs can take the survey and view results via interactive dashboards that enable comparisons against different peer groups. They can also see case studies that help showcase how different labs from around the world are working to improve their operational efficiency and prepare for an evolving healthcare landscape.