The quick, global spread of COVID-19 has caused an urgent need for simple and fast tests for screening large populations and for identifying also asymptomatic infected people. Governments around the world are looking for alternatives to ease the burden on state-owned health systems. Finnish healthcare technology company iSTOC specializes in immediate diagnostics and analytics, and has launched rapid tests that can detect antibodies for different infectious diseases from a small drop of blood, and a mobile diagnostics solution for analyzing the test results and for geographical mapping of the spread of infectious diseases.

The diagnostics solution developed by iSTOC has been in use for several years already, mostly in third world countries like Pakistan, where a large number of people have been tested for, among other things, hepatitis and tuberculosis, as well as HIV infections. With the information gathered from the testing, the healthcare authorities have been able to effectively prevent the spread of these diseases. Now this same technology is in use for testing and mapping the spread of coronavirus. Inexpensive rapid tests can detect and analyze also asymptomatic infections that are typically not included in traditional testing and thus not visible in the statistics.

“Until two months ago, the demand for our services came mostly from Asia, Africa and South America, from countries that are struggling with low resources in healthcare and have immediate need for new, more effective solutions. Now that coronavirus has reached western countries, governments and healthcare authorities have realized the need of comprehensive, reliable information about the spread of the virus and the different chains of the infection.” states Jarmo Järvenpää, CEO of iSTOC.

iSTOC Mobile Diagnostics Solution significantly improves coronavirus testing process and data collecting, and also ensures the quality of testing. It is a fully digitized and automated system that identifies the patient and the test environment, and all data points are digitally recorded. Rapid diagnostic tests can be performed with low cost in point of care, for example in diagnostics kiosks, mobile diagnostics labs, bedside at hospitals, clinics and laboratories. Test results are scanned with a smartphone and digitized, and reliable results are ready in minutes, which means that further examination and treatment can be started immediately. Delivery of the results is human-error free, the diagnosis is fast and accurate, and the result reports are available in real time. To support the health care personnel performing the tests, iSTOC offers guidance for using the mobile application.

Already one million rapid test kits for coronavirus have been delivered, and iSTOC diagnostics solution is in use for testing and mapping COVID-19. As test results are digitized and available in real time, tests can be analyzed remotely. Performing a rapid test doesn’t necessarily require a healthcare professional, which means that in the future it could be possible for consumers to perform a test for themselves at home, and based on the test result analysis, a person could prove being healthy or immune to the disease.

iSTOC is a Finnish company specialized in healthcare technology and Immediate Diagnostics and Analytics (IDA). The company was founded in 2012 by a group of Nokia professionals with extensive experience in mobile technologies and development of cloud based health services and applications. iSTOC is a global player in mobile point of care (POC) diagnostics by transforming stagnant and disconnected data into relevant and actionable information. By integrating mobile technologies with smart services, iSTOC has deployed and is deploying POC services to both consumers and professional users. iSTOC enables faster, easier, more accurate and less costly diagnostics.