Developers are pursuing rapid flu and strep-throat diagnostic products as the pandemic raised consumers' comfort level with monitoring their own health, The Wall Street Journal reported March 3.
Before the pandemic, medical professionals and public health officials were reluctant to embrace at-home testing due to concerns that users' would have trouble performing a test or that individuals would overreact to test results. But, the at-home COVID-19 tests have accelerated interests in developing more at-home testing for other diseases, according the Journal report.
Cue Health, a San Diego-based healthcare technology company, is in active clinical trials for its at-home flu test and is developing others, including an at-home chlamydia test.
Detect Inc., which developed an at-home COVID-19 test, is creating an at-home strep-throat test and a combined COVID-19 and flu test.
"One of the most important, enduring changes in the pandemic will be a shift in how people view diagnostics at home," Ayub Khattak, chief executive of Cue Health, told the Journal. "It is better for people to have access to information more quickly."