Glia Diagnostiek: Amsterdam laboratories join forces

The laboratories of four Amsterdam healthcare institutions (Amsterdam UMC, OLVG Lab, GGD Amsterdam and Sanquin Diagnostiek) are joining forces. Under the name Glia Diagnostiek, the four parties will work together to offer large-scale and complex laboratory diagnostics in the Greater Amsterdam region through a single digital portal.

The COVID pandemic has emphasized the need for more sustainable healthcare. Fragmented care requires more and better regional coordination. Other factors also require new approaches. For example, getting enough staff is a challenge and patients are increasingly being treated within a chain of healthcare providers. In addition, there is an increasing demand for complex laboratory diagnostic services, the knowledge of which is now often scattered. With the collaboration announced today, Glia Diagnostics offers an answer to these challenges.

The four parties are proud to announce the collaboration. "We have been working together as organizations in many areas for some time. By joining forces in this area of laboratory diagnostics, we will eventually be able to serve both patients and healthcare providers faster and better. Our joint mission is to provide the right diagnostics, in the right place with the right advice, from the right party, quickly and of high quality. With Glia Diagnostiek we connect different lab disciplines and all lines of care (home, 1st, 2nd and 3rd line)," says Anja Leyte, director of OLVG Lab BV, on behalf of the four parties.

Expert labs up and running

In some laboratory disciplines, such as hemostasis and oncology, so-called expert lab projects have already started. In these, specialists from the various parties work together to design how best to perform these diagnostics within the partnership. The expert labs are based on the "one-stop shop idea": healthcare providers gain access to diagnostics through a single platform. Behind this front door, all parties involved ensure optimal integration of diagnostics and the best advice. To realize this, work is underway on the creation of a digital environment that will make it much easier for healthcare providers to make an application. Through the platform offered by Glia Diagnostiek, they will have easy access to requests and results.