From test results to system design: why labs must shape the future of cardiovascular care
2 July 2026
A panel at the recent IFCC conference in Belgrade highlighted that revolutionising community services will depend on effective use of diagnostics and data – and that the laboratory community has a key role to play.
Laboratories and the tests they provide are integral to prevention, diagnosis, risk stratification and long-term outcomes in cardiovascular and cardio-renal-metabolic care pathways. This places them in a unique position; decision-makers should not only expect them to support care delivery, but invite them to help design and govern local systems. Their involvement is all the more relevant as system leaders strive to improve community outreach, early detection, triage and the long-term management of chronic conditions.
One of the privileges of chairing a panel at the recent International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC) conference was hearing the perspectives of people working in clinical practice, laboratory medicine, patient advocacy and health system leadership on one of the defining challenges of our time: preventing cardiovascular disease.
Diagnostics are essential, but underused in system design
Many of the themes discussed at the conference were familiar. Health systems are largely reactive rather than preventive, and care is fragmented across specialties, settings and sectors. Too many people are identified too late, despite the fact that most premature cardiovascular deaths are preventable. Women continue to be under-researched, underdiagnosed and underserved.
Laboratories and the tests they provide are integral to prevention, diagnosis, risk stratification and long-term outcomes in cardiovascular and cardio-renal-metabolic pathways.
New technologies could shift care closer to the people that need it
The discussion also explored how digital health, AI, point-of-care testing and decentralised diagnostics could bring care closer to patients and strengthen primary care – a vital goal widely acknowledged as central to sustainable health systems. Laboratories and tests are central to:
- identifying risk and disease earlier; they enable timely initiation of guideline-directed medical therapy and reduce progression, events, costs and productivity losses
- impactful disease management programmes. As a routine part of therapeutic review, they help healthcare providers spot underlying physiological changes; titrate and adapt clinical decision-making; and guide patient support, education and ultimately efficient resource allocation
- equitable access to both traditional and advanced diagnostics, including genomics which in particular will be important in the coming era of personalised cardiovascular and cardio-renal-metabolic care. However, genomics also have the potential to exacerbate inequalities if access is uneven.
Several panellists at the IFCC conference argued that the future lies not in choosing between centralised laboratories and community-based diagnostics, but in creating integrated networks that combine both. This will enable strong technical oversight, clear governance arrangements and evolving professional guidance as testing increasingly moves beyond traditional laboratory settings into primary care, community services and pharmacies. It will also mean ensuring that diagnostic data can be validated, shared and translated into meaningful action for both patients and healthcare professionals. In short, we need local systems with diagnostics firmly embedded at every stage of care, rather than treated as an afterthought.
One of the privileges of chairing a panel at the conference was hearing the perspectives of people working in clinical practice, laboratory medicine, patient advocacy and health system leadership on one of the defining challenges of our time: preventing cardiovascular disease.
Laboratories must move from support function to strategic partner
One reflection stayed with me after the session: as highlighted in the 2021 Lancet Commission report, diagnosis is one of the most neglected areas in health policy and health system design – and it is often the single largest gap in the care pathway. Laboratories can generate some of the most important insights available to health systems, yet are too often viewed as a technical or operational function rather than a strategic one. Decision-makers and payers at all levels need to recognise that if labs are not at the table, it’s a huge missed opportunity.
In all these areas, we urgently need to enable more decentralised and community-based models of care. For organisations such as the IFCC, and its members, there is a significant opportunity to become recognised leaders in this transformation. They can do this not simply by generating data and evidence, but by helping define what a whole-system approach to prevention, diagnosis and care should look like; by designing the flow of samples and data; and by using key devices and tests appropriately. These will be particularly important in health systems that have historically undervalued diagnostics.
The challenge is not a lack of evidence or expertise; it is ensuring that laboratory medicine has the voice, partnerships and policy influence to translate those strengths into system change.
Many thanks to my fellow panellists for a rich discussion: Borjana Pervan (World Heart Federation), Joel Kritzer (Roche), Hugo Ribeiro (QuidelOrtho), Charles Chen (Snibe), Marta Bragagnolo (Global Heart Hub); and to IFCC organisers Sanja Stankovic (University of Belgrade) and Damien Gruson (Cliniques Universitaires St Luc).