Formal European launch of lab tests online

Jan 29 2008

The formal European Launch of Lab Tests Online, the peer reviewed, patient-centred, non-commercial source of information on laboratory testing, will take place on Thursday, 31 January at La Bibliotheque Solvay in Brussels.

EDMA, the European Diagnostic Manufacturers Association and its partners will celebrate with EU policy makers, patients representatives and the scientific community the success of the online portal that already reaches per month around 1.5 million users world-wide.

Lab Tests Online is a multilingual site about laboratory testing, initially developed by the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) in the US. It provides easy to understand, accurate and reliable information about laboratory tests, their related conditions and screening programmes in each country.

Addressed both to citizens and primary care professionals, the site in the US already gets an average of 1.2 million visits per month. Due to its success, AACC and its partners are working to bring the site to Europe and beyond. The UK version was developed in cooperation with ACB, the British Association for Clinical Biochemistry, and the Australia and New Zealand website was produced with the Australasian Association of Clinical Biochemists.

In continental Europe, AACC and EDMA (European Diagnostic Manufacturers Association) signed an agreement to develop new versions of Lab Tests Online. The first five online versions are in German, Italian, Hungarian, Polish and Spanish. Launched in 2007, all the versions are already been visited monthly by 300,000 European citizens and primary care professionals.

The work to translate and localise the website in these languages is an ongoing process with the cooperation of EDMA national IVD associations in those countries and the corresponding Scientific Societies for Clinical Biochemistry. It is in fact the national scientific societies the sole responsible for the translation, localisation and inclusion of content on each site.

Lab Tests Online meets both a public need and the highest quality standards on health information. Values appreciated by the European Commission that has approved the inclusion of the European Lab Tests Online websites on the EU-Health Portal. Links to each linguistic version of Lab Tests Online will be posted on the main topics of the Commission’s portal related to laboratory testing. In the same line, The Health on the Net Foundation has already trustmarked with the HONCode the first two complete websites online: US and UK.

Background:

EDMA, the European Diagnostic Manufacturers Association represents National Associations and major companies engaged in the research, development, manufacture or distribution of In Vitro Diagnostic (IVD) medical devices in Europe. Through its affiliated National Associations, EDMA represents in total more than 500 companies (or over 700 legal entities) across Europe. The mission of EDMA is to raise awareness of the importance, usefulness and added-value that diagnostic information can provide to healthcare. For this purpose, EDMA cooperates with European institutions, patients groups, trade associations, health professionals and academia to support an appropriate regulatory system, to work towards a realistic economic environment for healthcare in Europe and to be an effective voice in globalisation.

For more information, please visit EDMA website or contact Gloria Galán, EDMA Communications & Public Affairs Manager (Tel. +32 2 777 02 77)