That's a great question.
Generally when I think about advances in testing and how we can harness new approaches, they fall into two camps for me.
One is around ways of streamlining access to existing testing, such as, for example, the program we have with Internet-based testing. Or now, increasingly, we see people who have fast routes to testing. You come in and you can be triaged, if you don't have any problems, to get a simple screening. Those are the things that don't make use of new test technologies per se. They're just different ways of making testing easier.
When it comes to test products, each of those has an associated cost. They vary between products. They can be anywhere in the order of $10 to $20 or higher. Those tests are usually screening tests. They are usually the first test in a testing process, which means that you need to do a confirmatory test as well.
I think the issue around point-of-care tests is that it's not just the cost of the test. You obviously need to have a whole wrap of things that go along with that point-of-care test. For example, you need quality assurance programs, training programs and resources around their delivery. It requires investing much more than just the cost of the test.
Really, I think, this is increasingly where we're going in the future. I'd say that probably over the next 10 years or so we're going to start seeing rapid genetic or molecular tests for HIV, other viruses and sexually transmitted infections, which can be done at the bedside or in a clinic or in non-traditional settings. Increasingly, I think, we're getting more tools, so we want to make sure that for Canada we're able to really take advantage of those news tools as they emerge.