Letter to Editor: In-house diagnosis test research in Thailand

Dear Editor, In medicine, diagnosis and treatment are two important activities. To reach the final diagnosis, a diagnostic test is usually required. Several diagnostic tests are presently in use. The development of a new diagnostic test is an important biomedical research activity. A significant proportion of such research is conducted by the big medical diagnostic companies. Some research is undertaken by local research groups. In-house diagnostic tests are locally developed tests for local use. In a good and condusive research environment, high quality local in-house diagnostic tests may be successfully developed. However, there are many problems in standardization and quality control. We summarize our findings on previously conducted research in the area of diagnostic test development in Thailand and discuss relevant issues arising from our findings. A retrospective review of in-house diagnosis test research in Thailand was conducted. Relevant articles were searched for using an international database, PubMed, and a local database, ThaiIndexMedicus. The search key words include “diagnosis”, “in-house” and “Thailand”. Papers were excluded if there was no complete data. The details on study design and quality control process in each selected reports were analysed. Descriptive statistical analysis was used where appropriate.