The product

The need

Clostridioides difficile (C. difficile or C. diff) is classified as an urgent threat by the United States CDC.

C. diff is an intestinal bacteria that causes life-threatening diarrhea. It is antibiotic-resistant and is one of the most common hospital-acquired infections.

Current testing guidelines are weak and based on low-quality evidence, per the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Hospital protocols vary wildly, and can include multiple expensive and time-consuming steps. 

Current testing protocols cost over $350 and can take up to 2 days to produce results, leading to additional costs of $6,000 on average for patients in the USA.

Of the 5 million patients tested for C. difficile annually in the US, only 500,000 have C. diff infection. The remaining 90% pay this high cost needlessly. 

Read more about C. difficile at the below links:

The technology

The rapid C. difficile screening card is a paper-based screening that uses an oxidation-reduction reaction that produce color to identify C. difficile.

The screening takes less than a minute and requires no equipment or laboratory. 

The device is expected to be highly sensitive, thus preventing the spread of C. difficile and the over-testing that is currently done.

The device is inexpensive and is expected to save patients $500 per test and save hospitals $1500 per hospital bed per year in C. difficile costs. 

Qualitic has begun testing the device and will soon have concrete data of the benefits of the screening on healthcare efficiency and cost.