Last week, Health Canada formally changed its stance on at-home COVID-19 test kits as it looks to get a tighter grasp on the spread of the disease within the country. After prior statements in June where the agency indicated that it would not be supporting such testing procedures, they have now evidently changed their tune. Relay Medical (CSE: RELA) highlighted this fact in a Friday evening news release, identifying that the change bodes well for its Fionet joint venture.
In particular, the agency identified three new steps that it intends to implement to get a stronger grasp on the pandemic. They include:
- supporting enhanced solutions for airport testing
- potential solutions for home-based COVID-19 testing
- authorizing clinical trials for rapid diagnostic testing kits
Chief among concerns related to home-based testing, is that the agency believes that without the guidance of a healthcare professional, theres a “significant risk that a patient could use the home test kit improperly or misinterpret the results.” This simple fact bodes well of Relay Medical’s joint venture, which is focused on the Fionet device.
The device is designed to heavily reduce misinterpretation of results, while uploading patient data to the cloud. Compatible with numerous third-party rapid diagnostic tests, Fionet presents itself as an ideal solution to Health Canada’s conundrum through enabling expanded testing and tracking while removing errors from manual interpretation of test results. The device is ideal for community based settings, such as workplaces, airports, schools, pharmacies and home.
“Our government moved strongly towards taking the fight against COVID to mass community-based settings, where Canadians work, live, study, and travel. This is exactly the setting for which we developed Fionet, and where we already deployed Fionet in other countries to fight other infectious diseases. Fionet is a mobile testing and tracking platform that enables community-based return-to-work programs by performing at hospital-grade accuracy, yet in higher volume, faster-speed, less expensively, and with less-skilled frontline workers.”
Dr Michael Greenberg, CEO of Fionet Rapid Response Group
Fionet has been submitted for regulatory approval to Health Canada under an interim order for expedited access. Once approved, the joint venture intends to seek approvals for the device in other global jurisdictions.
Relay Medical Corp last traded at $0.24 on the CSE.
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One Response
This is the first time I hear about Fionet. It will be necessary to learn more about Fionet.
I work in a hospital and I understand perfectly why the state is afraid to rely on data that will be received from ordinary citizens. Because indeed the patient very often misinterprets the information that the hospital staff give him about his health. And sometimes it is impossible to explain simple things to a person. And such people are not so few