Earlier this year, Roche Diagnostics announced the appointment of Guido Sander as General Manager for the Middle East. With over 20 years of experience in developed and high growth markets, Sander will support healthcare transformation across 16 markets in the Middle East.
Omnia Health Insights took the opportunity to speak to Sander about his thoughts on how to make better healthcare outcomes in the region, how he believes access to in-vitro diagnostics has improved in the region and what’s next for Roche in the region.
What do "better healthcare outcomes" look like for you in terms of the Middle East?
Better healthcare outcomes are a result of serving patient needs through developing innovative solutions for our healthcare systems. To ensure a healthy society, governments in the region have increasingly put patient health and wellbeing at the heart of their initiatives with a focus on preventive solutions. In-vitro diagnostics play an essential role in this context, given the wealth of information it generates in sustainable healthcare.
Additionally, better outcomes also mean making our innovations accessible across countries in the Middle East through partnerships with key stakeholders, and an important prerequisite is sustaining continuous dialogue between industry experts.
At Roche Diagnostics, work towards this, by creating innovative testing and solutions of high medical value, including corresponding information management tools.
Can you tell us about how access to in-vitro diagnostics has improved in the region?
For Roche Diagnostics, access is all about bringing high-quality innovative solutions to patients and healthcare professionals, in a timely and sustainable manner.
Diagnostics has been crucial in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic which has been an enormous risk to the public, the healthcare industry and the global economy. The rapid spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus created an urgent need for millions of tests in a short period. The good news is that we live in a time where test results are being delivered in less than 24 hours due to the increased investment and array of offerings in IVD by laboratories.
Roche Diagnostics has been at the forefront in our fight against this global healthcare crisis. We have been manufacturing millions of tests per month to help combat the pandemic and reduce its burden on our healthcare systems. At the same time, we have been making substantial contributions to healthcare through new high medical value testing for oncology, women’s health, cardiology and much more in our comprehensive offering.
What is next for Roche in the region?
We are committed to serving as a trusted healthcare partner and bringing our cutting-edge, innovative solutions from our comprehensive portfolio in in-vitro diagnostics, to the region.
With new mutations of the SARS-CoV-2 virus arising, we will continue to work tirelessly to reduce the burden of COVID-19 on our society. And we will continue to focus on offering the right solutions for patients at the right time, no matter the situation. With our unique set-up of having our pharmaceuticals and diagnostics divisions collaborating under one roof, we are uniquely positioned to deliver personalised healthcare.
Currently, we are strengthening our internal capabilities and building strategic partnerships for the next stage in personalised healthcare. We aim to combine insights from multiple data sources with sophisticated analytics and drive more effective and efficient research that allows better therapeutic decisions for patients.