New procedure reduces testing time by 70%, leading to better patient outcomesToronto, OntarioJune 18, 2019SQI Diagnostics Inc. (“SQI” or the “Company”),
University Health Network (UHN) together with its partner SQI Diagnostics Inc. have performed the first successful tests of a groundbreaking procedure that reduces the time to assess lung health from over three hours to less than 50 minutes.
“Integrating rapid diagnostics gives transplant teams the means to more accurately assess the health of donor lungs,” said Dr. Shaf Keshavjee, Director, Toronto Lung Transplant Program. “Time-to-result is key because it can provide critical information on donor lung health to a surgeon before transplant begins — and I must say, we are very encouraged by the results so far.”
The TORdx™ LUNG is a proprietary research-use assay co-developed by the Toronto Lung Transplant Program at UHN and life sciences and diagnostic company SQI Diagnostics. The assay gives transplant surgeons an indication of lung health by measuring certain biomarkers of the donor organ throughout the lung transplantation procedure.
Using these biomarker results, a score is generated based on an algorithm developed by UHN called the Toronto Lung Score, which was recently announced at the ISHLT conference in April 2019. This helps the surgeon determine if the lung is suitable for transplant — reducing negative outcomes, organ rejection, lengths of stay in the ICU and improving overall recipient survival. The tests were performed on SQI’s sqidlite™ automated instrument. Samples were taken from procedures being performed and were used for research purposes only.
“This is an exciting milestone in the partnership between UHN and SQI — and it’s encouraging to see that both our teams were thrilled with the quality of results,” said Andrew Morris, CEO of SQI Diagnostics. “We are honoured to play such an important role in helping to improve outcomes for more patients in more places — and we look forward to expanding the TORdx platform throughout the world.”
About University Health Network
University Health Network consists of Toronto General and Toronto Western Hospitals, the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, and The Michener Institute of Education at UHN. The scope of research and complexity of cases at University Health Network has made it a national and international source for discovery, education and patient care. It has the largest hospital-based research program in Canada, with major research in cardiology, transplantation, neurosciences, oncology, surgical innovation, infectious diseases, genomic medicine and rehabilitation medicine. University Health Network is a research hospital affiliated with the University of Toronto.
Communications contact:
Gillian Howard
University Health Network
416-340-4838
About SQI Diagnostics
SQI Diagnostics (TSX-V: SQD; OTCQX: SQIDF) is a life sciences and diagnostics company that develops clinical grade multiplexed microarray and molecular assays run on its automated instrumentation for the pharmaceutical research, animal health, and clinical diagnostics markets. SQI develops custom research and diagnostic assays that are multiplexed; meaning the simplification, consolidation and automation of many individual tests into one. This increases sample throughput, reduces time, cost and chance for human error, and provides excellent data quality. For more information, please visit sqidiagnostics.com.
Investor Relations contact:
Chief Executive Officer
Andrew Morris
416.674.9500 ext. 229
amorris@sqidiagnostics.com
Sales contact:
Vice President, Global Commercial Operations
Russ Peloquin
913.484.9022
rpeloquin@sqidiagnostics.com
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