Roche Diagnostics Releases New Asia Pacific Lab Benchmarking Survey Results

Roche Diagnostics Asia Pacific is pleased to announce the release of the latest results for its Asia Pacific (APAC) Laboratory Benchmarking Survey, the largest and most impactful study on laboratory operations in the region. Results are now available on Lab Insights, a digital platform that provides data and content for the clinical lab community.

Initially launched in 2010, the Asia Pacific Laboratory Benchmarking Survey allows labs to assess their performance on a wide range of quality, speed and cost indicators, helping them to identify areas for improvement and maintain competitive advantage. More than 3,500 labs from over 20 countries have participated in the survey since inception, providing a rich trove of longitudinal industry data.

The latest results, which cover all the data collected in 2019, include more than 1,150 unique responses—our largest annual sample yet. By visiting Lab Insights, clinical labs can take the survey and view results via interactive dashboards that enable comparisons against different peer groups. They can also see case studies that help showcase how different labs from around the world are working to improve their operational effectiveness and prepare for an evolving healthcare landscape.

As in previous years, the current survey covers key metrics related to quality assurance, accreditation, continuous improvement, IT infrastructure, turnaround time, laboratory setup and productivity. Starting in 2019, it also introduced several new topics, including processes and KPIs for sample handling, sample rejection, serum quality monitoring, clinical decision support and critical results reporting.

Since 2017, the survey inspired three peer-reviewed publications that highlighted key trends unfolding across the region. This year, Roche Diagnostics will release a series of new reports based on the survey data, including coverage of regional dynamics, as well as deep dives on specific markets like China, Korea, Thailand and India.

Some initial takeaways from our analysis of the data include the following:

More labs are adopting middleware to connect disparate systems—those using or planning to use middleware increased from 29% to 46% between 2017 and 2019.

Pre and post-analytic automation systems are showing a clear and positive impact on staff productivity—labs without these systems are handling only 71 samples per full-time worker per day, compared to 161 samples/day in labs that had them in place in 2019.  

Lean Six Sigma is rapidly becoming more popular and recognized across the region—nearly 60% of all labs using or planning to use lean methodologies in 2019, up from only 43% in 2017.

For more analysis, visit Lab Insights to take the survey, view your results and see the latest content. Stay tuned also for the release of new surveys that are specifically geared for labs operating in the Molecular Diagnostics and Anatomic Pathology segments, as well as our forthcoming Clinical Lab Transformation Survey, which helps laboratory and hospital CEOs to understand the key strategies that will impact the future relevance of the lab.