As the healthcare terrain undergoes dynamic shifts, Roche Diagnostics stays ahead in innovation, consistently adjusting to the ever-changing demands of the industry.

Matthias Essenpreis, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Roche Diagnostics, highlighted the critical role of collaboration in driving innovation within the healthcare industry, during the recent Roche Experience Days (RED) conference at the Grand Hyatt Seoul on Nov. 8.

Essenpreis, who oversees a global team of scientists and engineers, has been instrumental in advancing Roche Diagnostics' commitment to cutting-edge technologies and solutions. With over thirty years at Roche, his leadership has been central to the company's pioneering response to the evolving demands of healthcare, particularly in the shift towards decentralized and data-driven health services.

Essenpreis stressed that the recent Covid-19 pandemic was a real catalyst for rapid innovation.

"The pandemic has accelerated the innovation curve in ways we hadn't anticipated," he said in an exclusive interview with Korea Biomedical Review.  

According to Essenpreis, this acceleration indicates a broader trend in healthcare, where the convergence of decentralized care, patient-centric models, and data analytics is reshaping the industry's future.

"We saw smaller companies providing solutions at an unprecedented pace, showing just how quick innovation can occur in our field," Essenpreis said. "Roche Diagnostics also acted in an extremely fast way, and how we reacted and provided diagnostic tests."

Roche saw its test device sales grew 29 percent to 17.8 billion Swiss francs ($20.1 billion) in 2021, compared to 2020, with Covid-19 diagnostics accounting for about a quarter of the year’s total.

The CTO said that the pandemic has also changed demands in healthcare, with an increasing focus on decentralized care, such as point-of-care (POC) testing and home-based solutions.

"We are pursuing several internal technology developments, including patient-centric sensor technologies," he said. "However, we are also looking at bringing innovative POC and home-based sensors through collaboration."

Essenpreis stressed that creating innovation cannot be done in isolation and needs to be a collaborative effort.

"Beyond the internal development, partnerships stand as a testament to Roche's commitment to innovation," he said.

When asked what kind of partnership the company has in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, Essenpreis referenced the company's recent collaboration with Korean government organizations like KHIDI(Korea Health Industry Development Institute) and the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the engagement with innovation hubs like the one in Singapore, which plays a pivotal role in understanding and addressing the diverse medical needs of APAC.

"Asia is a melting pot of medical innovation, and we're eager to learn from and contribute to this vibrant ecosystem," he said, underscoring his intent to explore how the innovation ecosystem in countries like Korea is propelling the diagnostics field in new and exciting directions.

Essenpreis commended Korean companies for their forward-thinking approach to international scalability, showcasing a global perspective aligned with Roche's vision.

"There's a strong customer-centric approach here, and Korean companies extend their vision beyond local markets to address broader global needs," he said.

Essenpreis stressed that Roche Diagnostics' collaborative efforts also extend to startups and bio ventures, which he sees as crucial for sustained innovation in diagnostics.

"When we see startups in their early phase, they often don't have a perspective of the customer and market needs, even though they have an exciting technology," he said. "And this is where Roche can make a difference in interacting and collaborating with startups early."It is important as an innovator to bring concepts into working technologies and make an impact, he added.

Essenpreis also explained that Roche's commitment to patient-centricity.

"Every day, we are driven by what happens for the patient with our products," Essenpreis said. "However, I also want to highlight that to better help patients, it is important to understand our customer needs, particularly those of diagnostic labs, which are key to delivering impactful solutions."

To ensure that its technologies and innovations meet patients' specific requirements at the labs, the CTO stressed that the company is fostering an open platform for collaboration.

"This platform invites various entities, including research institutions and tech companies, to share their solutions, thereby driving innovation on a broad scale," he said. "This openness is complemented by strategic acquisitions and partnerships that Roche pursues to bring differentiated, high-performance technologies to market."

In discussing the role of data in healthcare, Essenpreis acknowledged the challenges posed by the massive influx of data during the Covid-19 pandemic.

"We need to have a level of reliability and quality of the data so that physicians can make important decisions," he said. "However, the huge amount of data, and the multitude of sources, in the meantime, is overwhelming for decision-makers in the healthcare system."

He outlined Roche's efforts to build a suite of products under their Navify brand to solve this problem. The platform is designed to provide insights and support decision-making for healthcare professionals and, eventually, patients.

AI is another area where Roche is making strides. Essenpreis notes the potential of AI in diagnostics but also the current limitations, such as data quality and accessibility.

"The amount of data is still limited, because hospitals and countries often restrict access to data and the integration of data across those various sources, which, in turn, lead to a disintegration of data from the hospital, physician's office, and patient's home," he said. "I believe we are still in the early days of using AI, and we're only scratching the surface of what's possible."

The patient's role in diagnostics is undergoing a transformation, according to Essenpreis. He envisions a future where patients, equipped with the right tools and information, take an active role in managing their health.

"We're seeing the beginnings of this shift with wellness devices like smartwatches, and it's a trend that will penetrate deeper into healthcare, empowering patients and improving outcomes," he said.

However, Essenpreis acknowledges that with empowerment comes responsibility.

"Demonstrating the medical relevance and improved outcomes of patient-centric technologies will be a significant hurdle," he said. "I believe that while the development of these solutions is challenging and costly, the potential benefits to patient care and the healthcare system at large are immense."

Looking ahead, Essenpreis predicted two major trends in diagnostics in the years to come -- the rise of sophisticated analytical methods in core labs and the proliferation of patient-centric solutions.

"On one side, we have these ever more sophisticated technologies that are run in the lab to provide more and more complete information in terms of genomics and proteomics about a certain disease condition," he said. "At the other end of the spectrum, you see what we discussed at length, the patient-centric solutions where you don't necessarily need these sophisticated labs."

He emphasized that the convergence of these two trends, coupled with data analytics, will generate novel opportunities within a 10-year timeframe.