The UK government in collaboration with many universities, National Health Service (NHS) trusts and medical research bodies is launching a national research programme to examine the accuracy of Covid-19 diagnostic tests.
For that reason, the Covid-19 National DiagnOstic Research and Evaluation Platform (CONDOR) will be funded by the National Institute for Health Research, U.K. Research and Innovation, Asthma U.K. and the British Lung Foundation, a local media report said.
In April, NHS had announced a $1.5 billion initiative to accelerate breakthroughs in diagnostic tests for Covid-19. Dido Harding, executive chair of England’s test and trace system, told the media, “In just three weeks, NHS Test and Trace has already reached more than one hundred thousand people who may have otherwise unknowingly spread the virus.”
Iti s reported that NHS is accepting proposals and seeks to approve 100 projects on this front. These projects will go up to three rounds of development.
The new programme seeks to establish a single route for assessing the accuracy of new diagnostic tests in hospitals and in community healthcare settings, a local media report said. In fact, the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, the University of Manchester and the University of Oxford are leading the programme in collaboration with four NIHR Medtech and IVD Co-operatives, University of Nottingham and the National Measurement Laboratory.