UAE labs get world's first connected management system to accelerate COVID-19 testing

InterSystems, a global leader in healthcare information systems and technology solutions, has signed an agreement with Pure Health, the largest laboratory operator in the GCC, to deploy InterSystems TrakCare Lab Enterprise (TCLE) system, the first and only laboratory business management solution, to support the UAE’s testing initiatives for COVID-19.

InterSystems is a creative data technology provider dedicated to helping customers solve the most critical scalability, interoperability and speed problems in their business operations.

Pure Health is a pioneering healthcare solutions provider and the largest laboratory network in the entire Gulf region with 115 labs and employing a total of 750 healthcare professionals across the nation.

Under this initiative, InterSystems’ web-based TCLE system will enable Pure Health to streamline testing workflows and make data easily accessible from all parties, thereby accelerating testing for COVID-19 in the UAE.

Pure Health has two dedicated Covid-19 testing laboratories in the emirates of Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, in addition to opening one more laboratory in Dubai in the coming week. With this, the organization will have the largest COVID-19 testing capability in Middle East with the capacity to perform 25,000 tests daily.

Commenting on this initiative, Ali Abi Raad, Country Manager for the Middle East and India at InterSystems, says, “Our team has been working round the clock so that our partners can speed up turnaround times on results and create specialised labs to reduce the load on public hospitals while fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. This is an unprecedented time, and the need for PCR testing has never been higher. InterSystems is poised to help Pure Health scale to meet the demand.”

Adnan Asif, Chief Technology Officer at Pure Health, says, “We are glad to partner with InterSystems to adopt TrakCare Lab Enterprise solution that will enable us manage our role in the initiative to contain COVID-19 in the UAE. We have been collaborating with healthcare providers and authorities in this screening initiative across the nation since the beginning. Pure Health has been conducting COVID-19 tests in more than 15 collection centers and two processing locations in the UAE.

"We will soon increase our capacity to conduct up to 75,000 Covid-19 tests daily. A few days ago, the UAE announced that 593,095 COVID-19 tests were performed until that day, out of which 259,000 tests were conducted by Pure Health," he adds. "We have crossed the mark of doing 200,000 COVID- 19 tests since the beginning of February, making it the largest number of tests conducted by a single laboratory network within Middle East, Africa and South Asia. As of April 7th, the Ministry of Health and Prevention conducted 593,095 screenings for Coronavirus. This puts the UAE's efforts at around 60,000 tests per million people – one of the highest testing density standards in the world."

TCLE is an automated platform that reads and collects patient’s data, resulting in minimal manual input and accelerating the screening process. TCLE is designed to help labs transform from a reactive testing and results service – typically supported by a traditional data and analytical management solution – to a data-driven organisation capable of meeting the increased expectations for modern pathology services.

The capability of conducting high volume of COVID-19 PCR tests daily is instrumental in combating the COVID-19 pandemic. TCLE can manage tens of thousands of PCR tests daily. This high throughput processing capability helps accelerate the diagnosis and identification of suspected COVID-19 cases, the release of recovered patients and the screening of close contacts and high-risk groups.