Our second meeting, “Impact and cost-effectiveness of current and future diagnostics for TB” held April 2013 in Amsterdam, aimed to bring together experts in the field of TB diagnostics to improve the contribution of modelling to the development, deployment and evaluation of novel TB diagnostics. Work focussed on 4 specific areas of research, or workstreams:
1) Informing scale-up strategies for Xpert MTB/RIF
2) Developing and selecting target product profiles (TPPs) for novel TB assays
3) Understanding the role of drug susceptibility testing (DST) in existing and novel TB drug regimens
4) Describing analytic and modelling needs for better models of TB diagnostics
These outcomes of workstreams 1 and 4 will be consolidated into an academic paper and submitted by November 2013. Work identified by streams 1 and 2 will be eligible for funding from TB MAC to support work on these modelling questions. The output of stream 3 (development of a “bridging model” to evaluate different algorithms for DST) will be funded though either the Foundation or the TB Alliance, and aligned with the plans to advance NIH‐funded Diagnostics Forum modelling work over the next 12 months.
A systematic review of the TB diagnostic modelling literature was carried out for the workshop and is available here.
The meeting consolidated the ongoing process of activating and expanding the field of the TB modelling community. The wide participation and presence of young scientists starting in TB modelling shows that this process is already underway. In future, TB MAC will continue to bring together new and experienced TB modellers, along with data experts around specific topics to share novel research and experiences, and to provide new focus and energy to the field.
For more information, please see the full meeting report.
