March 2010
At it's Annual Meeting 2009 in Cancun, Mexico, the New Diagnostics Working Group released a new publication entitled: Pathways to better diagnostics for tuberculosis: A blueprint for the development of TB diagnostics.
This publication, with contributions from over 30 experts, aims to provide a comprehensive, well-referenced blueprint to guide researchers, clinicians, industry partners, academics, and TB controllers in all sectors in all aspects of TB diagnostics development, from concept to evaluation, implementation, scale-up, delivery and impact. It is designed to help identify the most promising TB tests, to push them towards alignment with the needs and requirements of the areas where tuberculosis is most prevalent, and to help determine why some are held up in development. The blueprint also is intended to help boost coordination and collaboration across the diagnostic research and development landscape, while leading to greater success in advancing new tests by clarifying that landscape and the various development steps. Finally, considering the paucity of national regulations regarding the quality of diagnostics and the need for a strong evidence base to support health policy decisions, this blueprint seeks to inform and advance independent evaluation and assessment of the new tools’ likely impacts based on scientifically sound methodology, in addition to well-defined standards of practice for study design.
ANNUAL MEETING NEW DIAGNOSTICS WORKING GROUP
25 November 2009
The Stop TB Partnership New Diagnostics Working Group is holding its annual meeting in Cancun, Mexico, in conjunction with the 40th Union World Conference on Lung Health.
The Secretariat and Co-Chairs of the Working Group are very pleased to invite all members and non-members to attend the open session on the 3rd of December, 2009 from 13.00 to 17.00h. This meeting will be a great opportunity to obtain information on the latest topics in global TB diagnostics and to become involved in the New Diagnostics Working Group activities. Also, the Working Group will present its latest production: Pathways to better diagnostics for tuberculosis: A blueprint for the development of TB diagnostics.
For more details and the agenda of the annual meeting, please click here to see the Meeting Flyer.
We hope to see many of you in Cancun.
Giorgio Roscigno
Madhukar Pai
NDWG Co-chairs
Martine Guillerm
Sanne van Kampen
NDWG Secretariat
8 October 2009
Postdoctoral Fellowship in Tuberculosis Diagnostics Research
McGill University is Canada's leading research university, ranked as one of the top 25 universities in the world. McGill has a large, active, diverse research group on tuberculosis, encompassing several disciplines, including epidemiology, clinical research, public health, genomics, diagnostics, molecular epi, health economics, modeling, sociology and international health. Members of the research group have a strong track record for innovative biomedical, clinical, epidemiologic and social research.
McGill invites recent PhD or MD graduates to apply for a one year, full-time fellowship, starting Jan 2010. The postdoctoral fellow will function as a junior investigator, participating fully in research and related scholarly activities. The fellow would participate in ongoing TB diagnostic research projects, help coordinate specific TB research projects, coordinate IRB/ethics submissions, conduct data management & analysis, prepare manuscripts, assist in writing grant proposals, and conduct systematic reviews & meta-analyses and methodological/statistical projects on diagnostic research. For more information on the McGill fellowship, please see the flyer.
22 August 2009
The Stop TB Partnership's New Diagnostics Working Group (NDWG) is pleased to present a new website resource called Evidence-based Tuberculosis Diagnosis, available at: http://www.tbevidence.org Several agencies, groups and individuals have contributed to the development of this comprehensive resource. These include the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND), the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), the Global Laboratory Initiative (GLI), and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC).
This aim of the website is to provide the most comprehensive single source of evidence syntheses, policies, guidelines and research agendas on TB diagnosis. It provides access to all published systematic reviews on TB diagnostics (grouped by various test types or platforms), all the relevant policies, guidelines and research agendas on TB diagnosis, and several reports, monographs and training modules and slide presentations on TB diagnostics.
The website also provides detailed guidance on how to conduct and report diagnostic research on TB, guidance on how to perform systematic reviews of diagnostics, tools on guideline development, including GRADE, and documents on improvement of laboratory quality and practice. Up to date information on the current TB diagnostics pipeline is also provided, along with SOPs and package inserts for several tests, and specimen banks and databases. All information is provided as open access, with no registration or fee requirements.
This new website resource addresses a long-standing need for a single portal that compiles all critical evidence on TB diagnosis, along with relevant policies and guidelines for clinicians, health professionals and policy makers. We welcome your feedback and suggestions for improvement!
Giorgio Roscigno
Madhukar Pai
Co-chairs, Stop TB Partnership's NDWG
Martine Guillerm
Sanne van Kampen
NDWG Secretariat
10 August 2009-09-22
The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases, under the USAID-supported TREAT TB Initiative, has organized a Diagnostic Tools Initiative to comprehensively identify potential tools and strategies (existing and new approaches), determine the sufficiency of evidence for their use and application, identify gaps in the evidence that could be addressed by research, commission research in priority areas, and partner with selected groups to test approaches to determine how to apply new knowledge to the challenges faced by NTPs.
As a part of this work, the Union undertook a broad environmental scan of the work being undertaken in the area of new diagnostic tools for TB, and have generated a search database to catalog this information searchable by diagnostic technology, country and research organization.
This tool can be found at the TREAT TB web portal: (http://www.treattb.org/NewDXtools.aspx)
The Union invites you to visit the site, examine the utility and content of this tool, and provide critical feedback to them which will help to refine the tool, its content and utility.
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