Medical diagnostic company Visby Medical announced results of a study that analyzed the ease of integrating the Visby Medical STI panel into clinical practice, and its potential to inform accurate treatment decisions.

The study also looked at how the Visby test could reduce time to results, rates of over- and under-treatment, hands-on-time required to run the Visby test by clinic staff, and overall satisfaction for clinicians and patients.

The results were collected from a cross-sectional single visit patient outcomes and implementation study, which evaluated self-collected vaginal swab samples from 55 women using the Visby Medical Sexual Health Click Test for Chlamydia trachomatis (CT), Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG), and Trichomonas vaginalis (TV).

The results of this IRB-approved study are now published in the journal of Sexually Transmitted Diseases.

STI diagnostic test results are typically not available during the patient visit, therefore, clinicians must make presumptive treatment decisions based on symptoms, which can lead to over- and under-treatment. Rapid and accurate point-of-care results create a better workflow and can play a pivotal role in preventing the misuse of antibiotics by enabling clinicians to select the most effective treatment for the condition.

Appropriate use of antibiotics can improve patient health, reduce health care costs, and prolong the utility of effective antibiotics. Inappropriate antibiotic use can contribute to the development of antibiotic resistance. This is one of the greatest global health challenges of modern time, according to the 2019 CDC Antibiotic Resistance threats report.

 “Traditional testing for STIs commonly requires large, complex machinery in distant labs and can take days for clinicians to receive results, so that diagnoses and treatment decisions must be made without the benefit of an accurate, data-driven diagnosis,” says Adam de la Zerda, PhD, Visby Medical founder and CEO. “This publication by a peer-reviewed journal confirms the benefits of adopting the Visby Medical Sexual Health Click test into clinical practice to ensure patients are appropriately treated for CT, NG and TV, and in a timely manner, during a single patient visit.”   

Findings from this study showed that treatment for all three infections based on the rapid point-of-care Visby STI test results could have prevented every case of over-treatment and 13 out of 15 cases (86.7%) of under-treatment. Overall, patients were comfortable with self-collecting samples and waiting for test results.

STIs are epidemic in the U.S. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported in April that cases of NG and CT were at an all-time high for the sixth consecutive year.  STIs affect everyone: Approximately one in five Americans have an STI, with an estimated prevalence of 26 million new cases annually.